Shards of Regneration
by Kasan Soulblade
Summary: Religion is a panel of fine stain glass window, but when that glass is broken it is among the shards that you must look. Each shard is a soul, and if you put them all together perhaps the truth will be seen and all illusions lifted.
1. Default Chapter

Regeneration fic.

After Iselia... Colette's team

"Hello!" Colette smiled, waited, and sighed. This was the sixth hill she had done this on, and Kratos was heartily annoyed by the practice. He wasn't the only one either.

"Colette, whatever are you doing?"

"Nothing!"

"Colette are you looking for someone?"

"Nope!"

"Then please stop doing that, there are monsters and bandits out here, we don't want to call them over."

"Whatever you say Professor!"

The older woman looked at her pupil. She considered the young girl for a long moment with unblinking dark blue eyes. With a pen calloused hand the professor pulled a strand of silver hair from her eyes. Colette seemed unfazed by the scrutiny, she hummed a little ditty and smiled at her mentor after the staring dragged on for a minute.

"Colette, do you know what a bandit is?"

"Yep, Lloyd told me!"

"Lloyd's definitions are tentatively accurate at best, what did he say a bandit was?"

"A bandit is someone who hurts someone else and takes their money."

"A bandit," Kratos growled, "is someone who i kills /i someone else and takes their money. Let us not tempt fate by lingering here."

"Is it really all that dangerous here, Mr. Kratos? I mean we are only two days from Iselia."

Kratos didn't reply, only walked farther down the path. He felt Raine's eyes boring into him, but ignored that as well. He wanted to get this over with, to move on with it, and he radiated that feeling with every step he took. Neither of his two companions were stupid, they could sense his attitude, and he could feel their disapproval. He ignored that as well, and by Raine's reckon Kratos was the type of man to ignore i everything /i except his goal.

"I guess Lloyd was right," Raine said to Colette in a tone that would easily carry to the mercenary's ears. "Kratos is a jerk."

"Professor, that's not nice!"

"It's the truth though, but I will admit Lloyd's word choice does leave a great deal unsaid. It doesn't cover all the levels in which Kratos is a jerk, nor is it specific enough to point out all of the man's flaws. Though," the older woman pulled a strand of silver hair behind a pointed ear. "He does give a good starting point to do that."

Kratos winced at the woman's tone. She was making a point, bringing him up like a naughty student. What really brought the woman's point home however was the Chosen's response, the complete lack of defense that she offered him. She agreed with Raine, this innocent empty headed child agreed that he was a jerk. Had things been different he would have shrugged off the insult. He had endured far worse in his life. Words far fiercer stained a crimson hue of the life blood, which fell from the lips of his dying foes.

Yet in this case such a lack of being liked was not a good thing. It would hinder him later on when their trust was needed, when they entered a truly dangerous situation. He could not allow matters to continue like this between himself and his client. He would have to... Talk. He grimaced, his mouth curled in distaste at the idea. The idea of making small chat, of explaining himself, was about as attractive as eating a foully cooked meal.

"I apologize if my manner is offensive Chosen, I am only doing my job in seeing to your safety and getting you where you need to go."

"I think that's the whole problem Mr. Aurion." The elvish woman snapped at him. "You forget that there is more to this world then breaking the seals. Colette and I need small things, such as rest, talk, and other non-necessities that you probably find morally offensive."

"You have been pushing us very hard Mr. Kratos..." Colette chimed in, the mercenary noted how the girl slid a bit behind her teacher as if the older woman would shield her.

"But then you were hired for a reason, you know what you're doing, you've shown off your expertise with your swordsmanship on the various beasts we have ran into so far. I will admit though that Lloyd, or even one of the city guards, could have done much the same."

Dead quiet fell between them. Kratos could have taken the last as a serious insult, and he was tempted to. He merely gritted his teeth; his gut told him that this willful woman was not yet done speaking.

"Tell me Mr. Aurion, how knowledgeable are you with the bandits in this region?"

"I do not know the various leaders of each group by name." The mercenary rose an slender eyebrow at the woman. "I recognize various markings indicating their territories though."

"Have you seen any so far, or any sign of pursuit, or any hint of danger?"

"Not yet."

"Then I guess we can rest here then."

It wasn't a question; he'd get Hell over it if he insisted that they continue now. Gritting his teeth at yet another delay Kratos grunted. He watched as his two companions set down their packs, and after a bit of a conversation settled on making the hilltop a picnic spot. A blanket was rolled out over the soft green grass, rocks gathered to hold it down. He said nothing, did not aid them, only stood and radiated disapproval like the sun radiated light. They ignored him; it felt a bit strange to be ignored. He focused on the terrain, paid their words not heed as they chatted about insignificant matters.

"Mr. Kratos?"

The mercenary blinked, came back to himself at the girl's voice.

"Yes, Chosen?"

"We're making lunch, do you want something to eat?"

"When we move on I will snack on the jerky in my packs."

"That seems rather silly." Raine said, in her hand was a jar of what appeared to be a jelly of some type. Six slabs of bread lay on the pink blanket, by her knees, Kratos looked at the bread and mentally sighed. He was going to have to have lunch with them, there was no graceful way out of it. "We are going to be resting here for an hour or so after we eat, you might as well rest with us."

"An hour?" Kratos growled.

"Yes," Raine's tone brooked no tolerance for opposition. "An hour."

"As you wish."

Kratos watched as the Chosen of Regeneration happily smoothed jelly and peanut butter on her teacher's sandwich. Raine's voice lost it's sternness that it held whenever she spoke to him. She asked the girl to put a bit more peanut butter on, and politely declined the offer to have a layer of cut apples added to her meal. Knife still in hand the girl looked at him, he considered the options before him and asked for peanut butter and apple slices.

"I'm so happy someone else likes it too!" Colette beamed at him. "Everyone else thinks I'm funny because I like to put apples on my sandwiches. I love apple and jelly sandwiches! Lloyd always says it's too sweet, he likes it like you like it..." Colette prattled on about sandwiches and who liked what.

It was amazing really, to say something so small to make her happy.

She must have been an innocent, that or she was simple, whatever trait it was it made her circumstance all the more tragic.

"Here you go!"

Kratos tried a smile when he took the sandwich, at Colette's shudder he knew that he failed, and it must have been a miserable failure too.

"You don't smile all that much do you Kratos?" Raine noted after she finished the last bite. "My Goddess -no offense intended Colette- but you look like you're going to rip someone's head off with your teeth when you do that."

"I shall refrain from smiling in the future then." Kratos retorted, at that Colette laughed.

"Don't do that, if you do you wont get any practice, and if you don't practice you wont get better at it!"

Kratos shrugged, took a few bites of his food while standing, and did his best to ignore Colette. This child was confusing him. Fearful one moment, cheerful the next, if she was always like this it was going to be a very long trip...

As if sensing his thoughts Raine glared at him, he returned her glare with an expressionless facade. The tension that swept over the little picnic was so thick it would have dulled any knife passing through the air. Then suddenly the silver haired woman smiled at him, the smile was sweeter then the sandwich. That said a great deal, for he could barely tolerate eating the sandwich.

"Colette, when you're done eating I'm going to run through today's history lesson, alright?"

"'K!" Colette wolfed down the last three bites as fast as she could, carelessly smearing jelly on her face. Yet she seemed oblivious to the mess she had made. Her whole attention was focused on her teacher.

"Do you remember where we were last lesson?"

"You talked a lot about the treaty at the end of the Kharlan War, the one Mithos wrote."

That's right." Raine grinned at him, she saw him squirm at the words Kharlan War. "There was a lot that happened after the War. Many of these events have lead to the more prominent changes in the old world, following these links of change that occurred due to the Hero's efforts we can see how they have affected our world today. We'll start with the social ramifications of the Karlan War Treaty, and go through it declaration by declaration, that way you can get a fuller understanding how things were back then."

"Declaration?"

"Mithos made several faults of humanity well known; he spoke passionately against slavery and other atrocities. In the course of his travels, he wrote these atrocities down, and declared them to be morally wrong. You see back then such things as slavery were acceptable. People even go so far as to say that Mithos' ideals were used to sculpt the moral outlook of the world today. But if this is the case Mithos did not only did it affect the moral outlook, but his works influenced several laws. The first of those speaks of those in-between, or half elves, and the fact that they are entitled to certain rights..."

As the lesson continued Kratos toned out the woman's words. They weren't important, he knew about Mithos, about the declarations. He grimaced, took another bite out of the sandwich though he had no real appetite. He knew a great deal, this one woman's spin on it really didn't mean all that much.

Damned observant elf, Kratos mentally growled as he took another bite. Raine had noticed his boredom when she had first lectured her pupil on history. That had been what had motivated her to start talking about this now. She didn't like him, and this was her childish means of getting even with him for some perceived wrong.

He mulled over his actions for the beginning of the journey. He had not joined them for breakfast, had mutely walked alongside them during the first day of journey as their conversation floated around him like sparkling mist. A lone rabid wolf had come for them, it had charged out of the bushes and he had killed it before it could attack the Chosen. He recalled with a grimace the child's horror at the brutality of his actions, but he couldn't change that. He had to keep her safe no mater what, altering that side of his personality was out of the question.

Kratos took another bite, and had to admit, the blonde Chosen was not bad at making sandwiches. He wondered idly I this was not the first journey she had taken. Considering her two friends he wouldn't have been surprised to learn that she had gone on little trips or picnics in the forests surrounding her town.

He shielded away from such thoughts, ordered himself to not think like that.

She didn't matter, in all probability this girl was going to die on this journey, he could not get attached or grow too curious.

i Colette and I need small things, such as rest, talk, and other non-necessities that you probably find morally offensive." /i 

He almost smiled as he thought of the raw fire in the woman's vice. She was spirited, he'd give her that. Raine was also knowledgeable about children; and that was the only reason he had not protested when the mayor had appointed her to represent Iselia and basically blackmailed her into coming along. He knew little of children, and absolutely nothing of little girls… such a glaring lack of knowledge on his part could be dangerous for the Chosen. Add to the fact that the Chosen would likely unburden to her teacher rather then him… that was a bonus.

It was also turning into a problem.

She had to trust him, he had to be able to protect her, and if she didn't trust him she'd protest every step of the bloody way.

"Mr. Kratos, do you want to sit? The grass is really soft!"

He looked at her, stared for a long moment into her sky blue eyes.

So innocent, so sweet, she was genuinely worried for him.

"I told you Colette, you're wasting your time."

Colette paid Raine no heed, only looked at him with open concern.

He shifted his sword, and sat, absently folding the ends of his sparrow tail cloak under him. He ignored the elf woman's gawking, worked his blade out a little so he could fully draw I at a moments' notice even though it now lay across his lap. She smiled at him, just happy that he had joined her. Now that her small world was complete the Chosen turned to her teacher and asked about some obscure part of the treaty.

"It is rather complicated isn't it, all right; let's see… how to explain this… A private militia is an army that someone owns. They aren't like the guards in Iselia, they don't protect one area, though they did sometimes have fortresses and the like. A private militia goes from place to place fighting other people, kind of like…" Raine looked a bit flustered as words abandoned her.

"Much like a large group of wandering mercenaries." Kratos supplied.

"But why were they outlawed?" Colette asked, eyes going to one to the other adult.

Raine shot Kratos a grateful look, than did her best to answer the Chosen's question. "The reason they were outlawed was because very rich people were using militias to hurt innocent people."

"But why would soldiers hurt innocent people? I understand if that was happening why they were outlawed, but why would mercenaries hurt other people?"

"Chosen, not every person in the world is kindly, not ever mercenary in the world is good. A large group of…" He mentally winced at the childish explanation, but pressed on. "Bad mercenaries could destroy towns, cities, and so long as the pay is good they wouldn't care."

"But if there were mercenaries, and big militias, then they were needed some time long ago weren't they?"

"Very good!" Raine beamed at the Chosen. "Yes, the Kharlan war was a massive fight between two very large groups of people, and large armies were needed to keep the fight going. Once the Treaty was made old organizations, such as privatized armies, were outlawed. That way the fighting could not be easily be resumed, it was believed that if the war were to start up again the very world would have perished. Other war-like organizations, like mercenary bands, were discouraged. Because of these changes that were made due to the Treaty, Slyverant more or less peaceful for as long as anyone can remember."

"But if Mercenaries were discouraged…" Colette looked at him pointedly.

"Mercenary bands were discouraged; there are still a few lone mercenaries in the world… After all there is sill a need for violence to maintain order, as long as that need exists there will be mercenaries and soldiers."

"I…I guess so…"

"Is there some fault in my explaination?" Kratos asked, turning to Raine since she would be the expert in this.

"I think it's your attitude that's a bit hard to swallow." Raine looked at him, her expresion nutral. "Colette, could you please go get some firewood, we're running a bit low." When Colette was well out of earshot Raine regaurded him. Her gaze was intense. "As I understand it Colette's training as a Chosen has shielded her from a great deal of the world. It's a stupid practice, I don't like it, but I i will /i honor it. Keep that in mind when you talk in the future."

"So you enfource innocence on her, by keeping her stupid?" Kratos allowed scorn to touch his voice.

"Hmm that's almost funny, it's the exact same thing Lloyd said to me when I took her outside when we talked about in detail about the attrocities of the Kharlan war."

"You've skitted on the edge of telling her a great deal already."

"I know that, I am a teacher after all. I will teacher her, the priests' rules keep me from doing my job, so I bend the rules a little every now and then. It's not so much what we say though Mr. Aurion, but how we say it. Your negative outlook on humanity is alien to Colette. She's been raised to think that everyone has the potetial to do good, to be good, and that everyone i is /i good deep down inside. If you would be so kind as to keep your pessimism to a minimum as we travel it would make my job a great deal easyer."

Kratos said nothing, then stood. She looked up at him, daring him to protest.

"I would almost ask what hold the priests have on you to make you keep a promise that you must find professionally amoral."

"It's not proffesionally amoral, it's personally amoral. Raine snapped, anger colored her normally steady voice. "And they have no hold."

She lied, she had hesitated on the last part, that's how he knew she lied. Kratos snorted at the woman's poor attempts at falsehood, he then wiped the remains of his lunch from his hands. He took a step back, sheathed his blade, and absently kicked a rock off the blanket.

"We are moving on Ms. Sage, if you will excuse me while I go find my client."

"Your client?" Raine sounded angry, "is that all she is to you?"

"What else is she supposed to be Ms. Sage? I was hired to protect her, that makes her my client. I will do my job no matter what, and that's all there is to it."

"Tell me Mr. Aurion, you mentioned that there were 'bad' mercenaries, are you one of those?"

Kratos didn't respond, only turned his back on her and went to look for the wandering Chosen.

He found her, it took him less then a minuee's search once he got deeper into the trees. Her humming helped him considerably. He lingered in the shadow of a tree while he watched her gathering branches and the like.

"You shouldn't hum Chosen, you give away your location."

She squeeked, dropped the wood she had been gathering, and hopped back. As was her habit whenever she moved, she staggered back, and her arms spun wildly. Right as rain, she fell to the earth with a soft thump. He stood back and watched as she rubbed herself and "oww"ed at no one in paricular.

"Are you alright?" He asked, still not leaving his place in the shadows.

"I'm all right!"

She seemed a little disapointed somehow, but she did listen to him when he suggested she go back to the hill and return to her teacher. He offered to take the wood, and spent a little bit of time gathering it from the moist forrest floor. It was while he was at this task that he realized his mistake. He should have gone to her, she had wanted him to go to her, to help her up. A friend would have done that, in his lack of action he had possible marked himself as someone she could not count on as a friend.

i I am under her employ, I am not her friend, I am doing a job. That is all this is, a job /i 

And yet that too might be a mistake, she obviously trusted her friends, she might be one of those people who i only /i trusted thier friends. It was hard to believe that, hard to accept it considering her sunny manner, but it might be the truth. The more he though of it the more true it sounded.

If that was the case, if he was right...

It would make a hard job even harder.


	2. Reflections from fallen innocence

Response to reviewers:

SerattedDarkness: Wow, well I'm glad you're enjoying it that much...

MoonCannon: Thanks :)

SwordmasterJ: This site has given me a lot of problems, I think I've figured the ittalic problem out (We'll all know after this chapter) and I think I fixed the summary. Sorry for taking so long to update, I've been rather busy.

FariyV: Yes there will be an explanation for Kratos' condition and it's parameters... though you're looking at the wrong fic to get it from. I imagine the subject will be brushed up on very late in this story, but when I mean late I mean really late. I'm going to try to keep the spoilers to a minimum. Basically I'll reveal as much as a first time gamer would know and I'm going to mark chapters that go beyond that with a warning... That way first time players can avoid being spoiled. As for taste, those with Kratos' condition can taste, there is a hard to find skit where Kratos complains about Colette's cooking, and another where he gets sick from Raine's. So in the game taste is a sensation that those with Kratos' condition have not lost... If you feel you can't wait for that explanation I'll e-mail it to you or something.

Chapter 2

Lloyd's team, post Iselia...

Reflections from fallen innocence

(A/N this is a heavily reflective piece, basically I use flashbacks to explain what happened in Iselia, other parts not covered -the early Iselia part of game- will be reflected/talked about later on in the fic)

_It rained red in his dreams, his nightmares. Loving hands would hold him, then draw red lines down his flesh. Half familiar scents would twist and warp into the reek of rot. He would look up and the sky would split, hewn buy a shard of the sun, and from that split the rain would fall. It would fall on his upturned face, the tears he never wept would come from that sky and stain his cheeks crimson._

_That was his terror, his childhood terror, the red sky the piercing sun, and the crimson rain._

_That and the light._

_Unlike say sunlight this light in his nightmare rained from the sky, and ripped the earth apart. It tore up the world, tore up the sky, and the world would rain even harder._

_Sometimes the sky would scream as it was ripped to shreds, other times it would weep, and when it wept for some unknown reason he too would cry._

He woke with those all too familiar images playing in his head, and with all too familiar tears staining his cheeks. He sat up, held himself like a child, and shook from the horrors. Genis only muttered something in his sleep, and rolled over. The small silver haired elf was supposed to be standing watch, he should have been watching the forest for monsters and wolves, but he'd fallen asleep sometime during the night. Lloyd wasn't angry, he didn't mind, and he wouldn't bring it up in the morning when it rolled around. It wasn't fair, it was all his fault, he wouldn't make Genis more miserable then he was by scolding him.

After all what could happen to them this close to home? They were safe now, so why worry about it?

His throat caught at that last thought. No they weren't close to home, they didn't have a home anymore. He gritted his teeth, forced himself not to cry, he'd cried enough for ten people his age. He'd cried over his father, his mother, he'd cried over everyone that could be cried over, and he wouldn't do it again! He dug his nails into his knees, gritted his teeth, and ran through that mantra until the wetness behind his eyes went away.

_I wont ever cry again, I wont ever cry again no matter what! I can't be weak I have to be strong!_

"Whine?" Something wet brushed against the back of his hair. He turned and smiled a slight smile as he looked into the canine face of his oldest friend. Noishe's long tongue stuck out just the slightest bit over his sharp lower teeth. His long silver highlighted snout was less then an inch from Lloyd's face. With a small 'slurp' Noishe nosily put his tongue back in his mouth and his white teeth disappeared from Lloyd's sight with a quiet click.

Noishe repeated the sound, his brown eyes were wide as he took in his human friend's wet face.

"I'm fine Noishe, don't worry 'bout me."

"Whine!"

"Stop that, don't..."

Noishe sniffed Lloyd, then nuzzled his face. A paw awkwardly patted Lloyd on the back as his dog tried to give him a hug. Something in Lloyd snapped, he brought his arms around Noishe's massive shoulders and returned the hug. He trembled, the tears he wanted to cry would not come out so he held onto Noishe as he shook with tearless sobs. He buried his face into his dogs thick chest, closed his eyes as the green fur rubbed against his cheeks.

"What did I do wrong Noshy." Lloyd absently slid into using his dog's childish nickname. "I thought that when you helped people it was supposed to get better, not worse..."

Noishe only licked Lloyd's tearless face, and regarded him with somber brown eyes.

"Do you remember Noshy, when I was little, when I'd have that dream, do you remember when we'd lay down outside your pen and look at the stars?" Lloyd closed his eyes, swallowed hard. "Would it be OK, just this once to..."

"Bark."

Noishe lay, his back legs tucked under him, his fore stretched out and crossed. He had curved himself ever so slightly and Lloyd leaned back into his dogs side with a sheepish smile on his face. As an afterthought Lloyd grabbed his blanket, draped it over the two of them. Noishe almost as absently wagged his tail and made the blanket squirm. Lloyd laughed softly, draped one arm over his dog's shoulders and fixed the blanket with the other.

Moonlight flashed off his ex-sphere, no his mother's memento, and he felt the tears trying to come again. He forced the smile on his face to stay, and leaned back. Lifting his hand up Lloyd pointed to the sky, stories, dwavish and from other places he didn't know, ran through his head.

"Martel's crown is out tonight Noshy."

"Bark."

"And there's Clayford's ax."

Another quiet bark from Noishe told Lloyd that he was well aware of what constellations were out tonight. They'd done this all the time when he was little after all.

"Did you ever hear that story about Martel and the three angels Noshy?"

"Whine?"

Noishe sounded confused. Lloyd never told this story before, and Lloyd had never really heard it before either. Sometimes though, when he needed it, a story would just pop into his head and comfort him. This was one of those stories.

"There are three angels that guard Martel, two light and one dark... The Light Angel's are Yuan and Mithos, and the Dark Angel was Kratos... Heh, that guy, that mercenary's name was Kratos... I never thought of that, I wonder if he knows he has a star named after him... Anyways, Yuan is the angel of Summer, Mithos the Angel of Autumn, Martel is Spring, life, and beauty, but Kratos, Kratos is Winter. His star is special, the hilt of his sword is marked by the red star. Unlike all the other angels who don't have weapons, he does. It's because he's a warrior angel, and that's why everyone calls him the Dark Angel."

Lloyd scrunched up his face, he knew there was more but it was like there was this wall in his head, this black thing he couldn't work his thoughts around and remember the whole story.

"Man, I hate it when this happens!"

Lloyd smacked himself on the head hoping, much like Raine constantly hoped, that something would come out. Nothing ever did however, and now he was nursing frustration and a headache.

"I'm sorry Noishe I don't remember it all..."

"Bark!" Noishe seemed happy enough, he snaked his head around and licked where Lloyd had hit himself.

"Stop it Noshy, that's enough!" Lloyd laughed into one of his dog's huge ears.

Noishe barked again, and went back to licking Lloyd with a vigor unmatched. He stood, shook off the massive blanket and set his large paws on the young swordsman's shoulders.

"Bad dog, bad, ack!"

The tongue came out and pinned by an expert Lloyd could not move as his dog decided that Lloyd's face needed a new coating of dog drool. Satisfied with his work Noishe used a paw to snatch the blanket from the forest floor and plopped it down on Lloyd's back. Then deciding that Lloyd looked comfortable and also looked like a comfortable place to lay down on, he did so.

"Genis help!" Lloyd yelled, and was smacked by his dog on the back of the head.

"Grrr!"

"Off, now!"

Noishe crossed his fore paws and set his head down over them with a yawn.

"Man I shouldn't have asked, this is why you have a pen do you know that? This is why!"

Noishe only closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Xxxxxxx xxxxx xxx xxxx xxx (please work.. Need astericks, writing too bloody distracting)

"_Hush little child, don't say a word, moma's going ta buy you a mocking bird..._

_If that bird don't sing a song..."_

"_Wow, parents sing that?"_

"_Yes they do dear, though grandparents do it too."_

"_Wow, that's really neat Marble! How do you know?"_

"_I have a little girl, and my little girl got married and had one of her own." Marble smiled, her wrinkled face happy. "She's not a day over thirty nine and she still blush's when I called her that."_

"_It must be awful nice to have family like that..."_

"_It's one of the most wonderful things in the world. But don't think that you've been shorted dear, you haven't been. Your family can be your blood, and it can be those you meet as well. I know, my own Dad wasn't my blood, I never had the chance to meet him or my Mother, I was adopted much like that friend of yours... Lloyd? Yes Lloyd was the adopted one wasn't he?"_

_Genis nodded, a smile still on his face._

"_You make your own family dear, you find them as you go through life. Think yourself as lucky for that."_

"_I'll try..."_

"_I know it's rough with your sister and you living alone, but it will get better I promise." She reached through the bars, stroked his face with a labor calloused hand. "You best run along dear, I've hid the food, and thank you yet again."_

"_Of course," Genis blushed, rubbed the back of his head with a hand. " No problem... Marble, does it work, can you really find family like that? Have you ever..." _

_Genis blushed as realized what he had just said._

"_I have, and I still do, you never stop finding family, even when you get to be my crotchety age." Marble grinned at his protest that she most certainly was not old._

"_Run along they'll be coming by in a bit, you dare not linger."_

_Genis nodded, and ran back a ways, right before he was about to duck past the last boulder and shoot out of sight he turned. Marble wasn't looking at him, she was looking at where he had stood. Tears slid down her face even thought a smile was on her lips. She rubbed her hand, the one that she'd touched him with and then wiped at her eyes and with that strangely gentle smile on her face she walked back into the ranch. _

"Marble..." Genis rolled the small rock on his hand, it was warm to the touch. He held it in his hands as it glowed a soft golden hue. "How could they do this to you... you were so nice and and..."

"_I have found a punishment fitting of your crime."_

"_What is that thing!"_

_Claws lashed out, swatted the mayor aside, and horrible as he was he wasn't mad. He didn't like the mayor, that guy was a jerk, he deserved it! It screeched at them, staggered forward on twisted legs and reached at them with grotesquely long talons. He closed his eyes words that made the mana come out fell from his lips. Fire blackened it, winds he cut the thing and released a spray of yellow blood. No it wasn't blood it was puss, signs of some dread infection... _

_Then it looked at him, and he knew, he _knew

"_Marble!"_

_Lloyd froze for a second, his swords dripped the infected blood. He gapped, and was swatted aside by the monster's huge paw._

"_Marble please stop please!"_

_It shuttered, looked at him with it's single eye and trembled._

"_G...G...Genis?"_

"Please stop.. You stopped you stopped... and then you you..." Genis sobbed, rolled away from the fire and looked unseeingly into the night.

"_I banish you from Iselia, now get out!"_

"_What, you can't do that to them, they're children Mayor."_

"_So, will that bring back all the dead, will us accepting them magically fix our houses? The Desian's want Lloyd, Genis has made his own decision. I will brook no argument on the matter!"_

"_But..."_

"_Silence!"_

_The one protester, the guard of Iselia's south gate, gritted his teeth and glared daggers at the Mayor. No one else said anything, no one else dared to protest. With narrowed eyes the Mayor scanned the rest of the people of Iselia, then seeing no more would be hero's to the children... the outcasts... he tromped back to his house._

"_I'm sorry, I really am..." _

_The guard looked back to his post that was empty, but he did not return to it. All the other people were returning back to their homes to fix what they could, to shift through the ashes of their lives. None of them looked at either of them, all save that guard. He sighed, fished through his pockets and pulled out all the gald he owned, five pieces._

"_Here you boys take this, you're going to need it more then me now."_

"_Thank you.." Lloyd whispered. "But we shouldn't... you need it."_

"_Not much longer I wont." The guard smiled a sickly grin. "I'm not staying here, I'll stick to the forests til I hit Triet's Dessert. I'll snag onto a caravan and guard them for a while, that will give me plenty of money. I'll play mercenary until I can get to a place that needs guards and settle down there... So don't worry, I'm fine, I have a plan, don't worry about me alright. You boys take it, and I have something that I think you can use youngling." The guard smiled at Genis. "Hold on a second... I'll be right back." Firmly placing the gold in Lloyd's hand the guard turned and wandered off to his post. He came back a little later, he had just barely missed the conversation between Lloyd and Phardia. In his hands he held kendama in one and a knife. "You'll be needing these I figure. Take care of yourselves." With that he went off into the village to see if his house was still standing, to see if he could salvage anything from it and supposedly move on with his life. _

"It's all my fault..." Closing his eyes Genis cried into his arms and prayed he would fall asleep.

(Asterics can someone tell me how to put them in? Just imagine them here...)

"Breakfast is served!"

The bundle of blankets stirred and the dog resting on it whined in protest.

"Man Lloyd you are so lazy! If Noishe lays on you because you don't move he must of thought you were the ground or something."

There was a muffled oath and more squirming, Noishe snapped an eye open and glared at him.

"Breakfast Noishe, huuuuman food."

Noishe didn't seemed thrilled at that, and looked a bit insulted at how Genis had dragged out the word.

"Come on Noishe, I can't eat this by myself, so get off of Lloyd so he can eat. If you do I'll give you some scrambled eggs and two slices of bacon."

"Bark!"

Noishe hopped off Lloyd and walked straight up to Genis, eager for that promised breakfast.

"Oww... I'm in pain..." Lloyd staggered to his feet. "Parts of me are asleep that I didn't know could sleep..."

"Eww, you're sick Lloyd you know that?"

"Huh? Wha'd I say?"

Lloyd yawned, stretched, and staggered over to his friend. He ate his food, not like normal, it was different somehow... He chewed it, his eyes still a little groggy were distant as he tried to think and wake up at the same time. When he was done eating he didn't say anything, just leaned back and scritched Noishe's green head. He watched Genis eat breakfast, neither of them could dredge up any enthusiasm, everything that had happened was just to big, to dark, for them to act like everything was the same.

"Genis, I'm sorry I got you into this."

"What? It was my fault I took you to see Marble and..."

"But it was my idea to attack the Desians."

"No it was my idea and I..."

Noishe looked from one to the other, then barked sharply, shocking them both out of their self blame game.

"What is wrong with you Noishe!"

"Bark!"

"Ung I'll never understand you..."

"Yeah, your brains too small for that." Genis teased absently.

Startled he blinked at his continuation of that old gag. It was a running joke between them that dog was smarter then master. He was surprised how it just came out of him, just like old times. Just like before the world decided to fall apart.

"Well of course Noishe's smarter then me, look at that head, if half of it were brain he'd have a bigger brain then you." Lloyd grinned, picking up where Genis had dropped the thread of humor. "I mean you're head is so small it's amazing that you have room for all of that smart stuff."

"It's called knowledge Lloyd..." Genis rolled his eyes. "And if you didn't sleep through class all the time..."

"I so do not sleep through class!"

"Do to!

"Do not!"

"Do to!"

"Do not"

"Whiiine!"

"Alright already we'll stop, you're such a whiner Noishe!"

"Yeah but he has an excuse... unlike you. I mean all he can really say is whine and bark... it's half of his vocabulary..."

"What's that supposed to mean!"

Genis laughed and after a long moment Lloyd laughed with him.

Just like old times...

"Hey, weren't we on a thing-a-ma-bob? You know a... Watcha-ma-call-it?"

"A journey?"

"That's the word!" Lloyd snapped his fingers, he was overstating his dumbness, and like always when he did that Genis found himself laughing. "Weren't we on one of those things?"

"Yeah," Genis wiped at his eyes. "Yeah we were."

"Well lets get going then, we so can not let Colette reach that first seal without us there. Can you imagine how miserable she is. I mean with the professor yapping about history the whole way and that Kratos guy with her. She's got to be bored out of her mind!"

"You mean she really is traveling with that guy, the mercenary with the one word vocabulary?"

"Humph." Lloyd crossed his arms over his chest and Genis laughed all the harder. Lloyd's horrible Kratos impersonation was hilarious for some reason.

"Let's just break up camp then.." Genis managed between laughs. "And save Colette from boredom if nothing else."


	3. Triet part one

Sorry this took so long guys hopefully the chapter I put up will be worth the wait. 31 pages _(colapses on floor in exastion)_.

Anzu Rose: Colette's not dumb... so much as a total innocent. Writing innocence is very hard, and it makes making her dumb very tempting at times. Hopefully with this chapter I continue to follow the character's set personality.

MoonCanon: Thank MC, enjoy chapter 3

Fairy V: That's alright... I've done something similar a time or two before. I've given up on the asterisk.. X's are my new asterisk...

Chapter 3

Efreet's forge

Colette's team

Forest thinned turned to rolling grassland. No rabid wolves shot out from behind screens of foliage, no monsters posing as plants attacked them. It was peaceful, the spring sunshine was soft and gentle, the winds a mere whisper, an afterthought from the heavens to remind all who lived this day that the breath of life still flowed. Large fluffy clouds covered the sky, none of them hinted of storms or ill weather, there was none of that so he was did his best to dismiss it. The sapphire sky was not the one that held his heart after all, so he did his best to ignore it.

If only his companions would take such a similar stance.

"Wow professor doesn't that one look like a dog?"

"Hmm, I think it looks more like a house really..."

"And there's a birdie."

"A raptor actually... see how the wings end in pointed tips, that would mean that the bird is in all probability a specie of falcon."

"No the cloud, see that cloud right there?"

"Where?"

"There!"

"Oh yes, hmm it is a bird isn't it?"

"Isn't it cute?"

"For a clump of water molecules suspended in the air due to the water cycle... I guess so..."

"Professor!"

"I'm just teasing Colette."

The chosen lay on her back eyes riveted to the heavens, the elf had also had cast aside her dignity it seemed to lay on her back and join the Chosen in her silly sport. They both lay in the yellow grass, both pairs of eyes sported the same dreamy look that only those totally absorbed in childishness gain. There was no trees to lean against, so he stood a few feet away and was again back to radiating disapproval. He tapped his boot against the ground, oblivious to the grass he was grinding into the hard water lacking earth, and glared.

"This is fun Mr. Kratos, don't you want to join us?"

"No," catching Raine's glare he grimaced. "No thank you."

"Alright..."

He had hoped his all business attitude would encourage Colette to discard her play. No luck there, she only held onto her slight shame for a few minuets and then went back to staring at the sky. The ladies chatted about clouds and the like he stood, eyes combing the terrain. Soon, possibly in an hour or two, the world would change. The springtime that the rest of the world embraced had already faded into this false summer, and that too would fade. Golden strands of grass would weave in with golden sand. Winds now gentle and soft would become heavy with heat, and the very air would become a force to be feared. Caution would be absolutely nessicary, there would be no time for childish games. This would be the last time he tolerated such a stop, the absolute last.

He made an oath on that.

Breakfast was whipped away, little more then a memory. Sweat water from the ever flowing rivers disappeared into the darkness of three throats, he had firmly insisted that they ration everything, so the losses were not great. That was the only fight he had seemed to won today.

He had insisted they travel in silence, with little talk so not to draw in predators of the two or four legged breed.

The elf professor had lectured while they walked.

He had tried to persuade them to avoid the House of Salvation.

The Chosen had wanted to go there to pray.

He had argued for going at a faster rate, having wanted to put Iselia far behind them.

Rabbit holes had magically appeared every time the Chosen had put a foot down causing her to trip and bring not only Raine down but him as well on occasion.

When nature had seemed to rear it's head and fight against his wishes he had wisely shut up and just went with fates ever strange demands. They went at a crawl and all he felt was the building need to scream in frustration. When they finally did make it to the foot of the desert Kratos almost sighed with relief. The elf sobered up, the child looked a bit scared, those attitudes were far better fitting of this quest then the faintly veiled romp that they had been going through.

"Mr. Aurion, you are more familiar with this region then the rest of us, how long will it take us to get to Triet.?"

"A day, the difficulty Ms. Sage is not getting to Triet it's in crossing the dessert when one wishes to go anywhere else."

"Like when we look for the Seal."

"No one said this was going to be easy." Kratos scanned the hills of sand, scanned the skies, then nodded. "At least the last of the winter storms have passed, and it is far too early for monsoon season, so we have little to fear on that front. Shall we press on?"

His tone had a faint hint of maliciousness, to it... and he knew that Raine picked up on it, for she glared at him.

"I don't see any other choice." The elf relaxed her glare and stared at the first hills of golden sand, she let out a great sigh as the miles seemed to stretch before her.

"Don't worry professor everything will be alright!" Colette chirped. "After all it's just a sandy place right?"

"Who was your study partner when we did that unit on ecosystems Colette?"

"Lloyd."

"Remind me to never have you join with Lloyd during a study group ever again."

"I don't understand Professor."

"And I seem to be missing part of this conversation."

"Never mind, _I'll_ remember, that's all that's important anyways."

Xxxxx X X

Noishe looked at the desert and froze. The stop was so sudden that Lloyd plowed into him and fell on his rump. Genis of course laughed, he was doing that a lot lately, and it seemed always to be at Lloyds expense. Noishe whimpered, though the sound seemed un-connected to the fact that he had been bumped into. When the red shirt wearing swordsman found his feet and walked around Noishe to see what the problem was he couldn't figure it out. Noishe would look at the sands, look at his paws, then whine. That's all he did, and no amount of shoving, begging, or bribes would get Noishe to take so much as a step forward.

"We can't save the world if you don't come with us Noishe, come on, it's only a little tinny step, then after that they get easier! I swear they do!"

"Whine!"

"Noishe come on!"

"Ung leave him here if he doesn't want to come along!" Genis snapped.

"No way, he's my friend, I am not abandoning him here miles away from home! Come on Noishe, please!"

"Whiiine!"

"Noshy please, pretty please! I have jerky, you like jerky right?"

"Bark!"

"You know he might have a legitimate reason for not wanting to go in the dessert."

"Howl!" Noishe bobbed his head almost as if to agree.

"Alright, try to figure it out then." Lloyd grunted, he gave up trying to shove the massive dog into the sands. Ex-sphere beefed up strength or not Noishe just weighted too much.

"Noishe," Genis looked a little chagrined as if he thought it was weird talking to Noishe like he was a person. Lloyd didn't see what was so weird about it, Noishe was a person to him. "Is something wrong with the dessert?"

"Bark!" The massive green and white head bobbed up and down.

"Alright... umm what's wrong with it?"

"Whine!" Noishe lifted a paw and shook it.

"The sand's too hot for your paws, is that it?" Lloyd guessed.

"Bark!" He was rewarded with a lick.

"Alright so now what?" Lloyd panted, still leaning against Noishe's huge side.

"Hmmm..." Genis looked around then smiled as his gaze fell onto Lloyd's boots. "I think I have an idea."

"Don't look at me like that, you had that same look when you thought up that boat stunt when we were little."

"It did work didn't it? We didn't sink, we're both still here right?"

"Barely, and as I recall we got out into the center of the lake when half of the boat decided to fall off."

"A miss calculation, that's all. How was I supposed to know at eight that glue dissolved when it was submerged." Genis huffed.

"Yeah, and wasn't it your idea to send that note to Raine telling here where we were going that day. If she hadn't known then she wouldn't have seen us swimming away from the parts of that boat she probably wouldn't have spanked us so hard. I still get nightmares from that by the way."

"It... I .. This will work, I promise."

"I've heard that before... Alright just promise me Noishe wont get hurt."

"Noishe wont get hurt, I swear."

"So what's this plan of yours then?"

"You'll see, trust me."

"That's what you said with the boat. Now the hair on the back of my head is sticking strait up."

"Like the rest of your head's hair, that's why I guess I can't see it."

"I give up... I can't win..."

"Good, now hand over your packs, I need to go through them."

Lloyd did so with a grimace on his face.

"Alright now bring the test subject forward." Genis ordered.

"Test subject!"

"Whine..."

"Hee hee I've always wanted to say that it sounds so scientific..." Genis grinned. "Come on Noishe.. Here boy!"

"If he says dissect, run." Lloyd whispered into his dog's huge ear.

"Whine..."

Genis beckoned to the dog. Noishe looked at Lloyd to draw some reassurance that everything was alright. It didn't seem to help him when Lloyd couldn't meet his gaze. Finally exasperated to the end of his patience Genis sighed and back slid on the blood shared by him and his sister.

"Noishe, don't make me go Raine on you."

"Do it, and hurry." Lloyd whispered, his eyes wide in terror at the ultimate threat was brandished.

"Whimper..." Closing his eyes Noishe walked towards Genis, his canine face a mask of absolute terror.

Xxxx xxx xxx xxx xx

A shriek of terror pierced the sun scorched lands. The sound would have better fit a maiden who's honor had been tarnished when, say a man walks in on her while she changes clothes. It did not fit this situation at all. The maiden was red faced, not with shame, but bloody fury. The man was running, he was the source of all the screams.

"Impressive..." Kratos said to no one in particular.

"Wow professor you're really strong, but that wasn't very nice to do to someone."

"He started it!"

"You sound like Lloyd, I never thought you could sound like Lloyd professor!"

"Sometimes Lloyd does have a point." Raine glared at the other men who were openly staring at her with a mix of admiration and hunger on their faces.

"You do understand that this all could have been bypassed if you had merely agreed to wear the local garments I provided..." Kratos always seemed to have to get the last word in.

"I will not dress up in bandages to appease some local superstitious rabble, nor will I do it to aid in a custom that is demeaning to women."

"As you will."

"I hardly need your permission to do as I will!" Raine flared.

"Peace Ms. Raine, you merely have added a slight stumbling block in the situation. As it is I find your moral stance similar to my own, that is why I did not pursue the garments issue so hard."

They stood in the town square of Triet, or rather the circle as it was called by locals. Dust choked the streets, the firmness of the sands beneath their feet made Raine think that perhaps the circle of constructed of white marble was the last un-submerged remnant of a same made street. Alas bending over to check that, to sweep the dust aside would have been seen as a challenge to all the young men around them. One near riot was enough for Raine, more then enough. So they went to the weapons' store to purchase, of all things a whet stone and some other strange accessaries that appeared necessary to keep up the quality of weapons and the like. Despite her protests Kratos bought Raine a new staff, one topped with a steal weight that was crudely shaped into a sun.

"My old staff was sufficient Mr. Aurion."

"Not in my book it wasn't, the protection of the Chosen is priority Ms. Sage, I will not sacrifice it in the slightest for any sentimentalism you carry for that slip of wood you call a battle staff."

Oblivious to the fight between the adults Colette wandered off. Kratos of course tried to shove the blame on her, which Raine just as spitefully returned the favor. It didn't take long for them to find Colette, a small child had pulled her aside to talk to the her.

"-you think so Chosen?"

"I know so, everything will be all right in the end, it just seems a little rough now but things will get better in the end, I promise!"

The dirty faced child looked up to Colette and smiled. Dark eyes shining with tears he reached up with small hands and hugged Colette. She didn't seem to notice the grime, the mix of sweat and dust that covered the child head to toe, and she happily returned the gesture. Colette's long blonde hair seemed to veil the boys small emaciated face, her pure white clothes seemed to shine in the light, and in her arms the boy appeared almost as special to Martel as Colette was. When she pulled back the boy looked up at her with worshipful eyes and with a smile that took away all of _his_ suffering he ran down the dusty street and cut behind a building to get to whatever place he called home.

If he even had one.

Judging by the over large tunic, the shabby turban, and the tattered pants the boy would have been lucky to have a home. Very lucky.

"Hello Professor, Mr. Kratos, did you have fun at the weapon person's store!"

"Chosen it is very st..."

Raine pinched him then smiled to Colette.

"Dear next time please tell us you plan to go somewhere, we were both very worried for you."

Kratos gave her his glare of death, well that's what she had heard Lloyd call it, the name was pretty accurate. When he looked like that it was easy to imagine Kratos killing people with his eyes alone.

"I'm sorry professor, it wont happen again, I promise."

"Well we're just both happy you didn't get hurt. Right Kratos..." She smiled at him and he grimaced.

His reply was his typical silence, and Raine was happy enough that he didn't give her any of his lip. Goddess it was like traveling with a sulky child on a field trip where they absolutely didn't want to go. Even Lloyd behaved better then this man, at least the boy had more tact!

"Yasen told me that there was a fortune teller that could help us out!" Colette chirped. "I asked him if he'd know anyone who could tell us about the seals and he said that the fortune teller could tell us anything! Isn't that great!"

"Excellent work Colette!" Raine beamed at her student. "It's more then we had before, shall we be off?"

Kratos scowled at her, then looked back where the boy had run off to, his brown eyes softened, lost there ice. Surprised Raine turned and saw Yasen and another boy with him. By look they were a few years apart and related. Yasen, now that she had a better look at him had to be six, and his brother by the looks of him was eight.

"See I told you the Chosen was here!"

"Oh hi Yasen, who's this?"

"My older brother, Suoi!"

Nice to meet you!" Colette chirped.

"Your holiness." Suoi bowed.

"No, please don't do that please..." Colette seemed genuinely hurt by the boy's genuflecting. "I'm not Martel yet, so I'm just a Chosen and you don't have to bow!"

"If that's alright Chosen."

"Please, just call me Colette."

"So are you really journeying to save the world?"

"Yep!" Colette smiled, though to Raine it seemed a little strained.

"Wow, that looks like fun!" Yasen chirped, "and look she's traveling with a knight and elfy wizard, just like in the stories!"

"Knight?" Kratos blinked.

"Elfy?" Raine protested quietly.

"Oh wow!" Colette was totally forgotten as Suoi turned to gap at Kratos. "You're a knight!"

Yasen became a bundle of questions at that point. "In all of Grandfather's stories said knights had white horses, you don't have a white horse, are you sure you're a knight, you kind of look creepy, have you ever used your sword, can I see it it looks neat, why's a knight going with the Chosen, are you a _paladin_?"

Having small lungs Yasen had to take a second to catch his breath. The second he opened his mouth they knew he was going to ask more questions, all probably in one breath, just like before. To cut it off Kratos rose one hand.

"I am not a knight boy, nor am I a paladin, just a sell sword. And no, you can not see my sword."

"Oh.." Yasen seemed disappointed at that. He then turned to Raine and took a deep breath.

"Miss elfy are you a wizard, what's it like being a wizard, are there more elves like you, do you live in the forest, what's the forest like, does it really rain all the time there, it only rains a little here, are there dessert elves, why do elves not come by here often, is that a magic staff, can you show me a spell, pretty please?"

Yasen took another deep breath and it was Raine's turn to cut him off.

"I'm an elf dear, not an elfy." She smiled at him. "I'm a healer not a wizard, though if you and your brother promise to be good for a week I will show you a magic spell."

"Yes, please, we'll be good for a whole week!" Both brothers smiled, and looked enthused.

They laughed and gasped in awe as she summoned a small sphere of golden light to appear in her hands. She tossed it to Yasen and he caught it, held that sun for a moment, and he laughed and acted as if she had given him the worlds greatest treasure. Both brothers passed it back and forth, openly sharing that bit of wonder she had given them. She held onto the spell as long as she could, and when she felt her energy running low she asked for it back. She made is disappear from her hands, and they applauded that as much as they had applauded it's appearance.

"Thank you Ms. elf, wow elves really are the nicest people in the world. Bye bye Colette, good luck with the respiration journey!" With that Yasen ran off.

Suoi looked at them in awe, then turned to Colette.

"You wanted to see the fortune teller correct?"

"Yes, we were headed there just now!"

"That's great, she's a friend of my papa's! She's the best in the world... if you can find her tent. I know I'll take you there! Come on, this way!"

With a slender hunger thinned fingers Suoi grabbed Colette's arm and lead her down the street.

Xxx xxx xxx

"Boots... I can't believe this _boots_!" Lloyd was more upset by the fact that his gald pouch and trinket pouches were emptied in an effort to make those boots.

"It worked didn't it?" Genis protested heatedly, though by no means more heated then the desert before them.

"Alright, let's check 'em. Come on Noishe, try them out!"

Noishe whined, shook his paws as if to check if the pouches would hold. Then with a grimace he set his foot down on the sands. His paw sunk in a few inches, then when nothing else happened Noishe opened his eyes. Seeing his paws were fine he turned to Genis his tongue lolled out, it was a broad hint to how Noishe was going to share his thanks.

"No, really you don't need to, it's not all that big a deal really..."

"Bark!"

"Ahh!"

Pinned under three hundred pounds of pleased dog Genis wasn't going anywhere. He tried to cry out for help but had no luck. The tongue was already at work going over his face, and because it was smaller then Lloyd's Noishe seemed to feel an extra coat of dog drool to go over the first was in order.

"Lloyd help!"

Lloyd laughed for a bit, then pulled Noishe off of Genis. With a hand the swordsman pulled Genis to his feet, a wide smile on his face. It'd been a while since Genis could remember seeing that smile on Lloyd's face, and despite what he'd just been through the sorcerer found himself smiling in turn. Pulling out his father's map Lloyd leaned against Noishe and figured where they were. From there they figured out where they needed to go, and from that they started out to complete the journey of a lifetime.

Xxxxx xxxx xxxx xxx

Their guild was fast, they had to break into a trot to keep pace. Not that he minded the exertion, it was hardly that, but in this heat he worried for the Chosen. She said nothing, kept pace with them, but remained silent. For once she didn't trip, which was almost miraculous considering all the other times she had tripped. He finally dismissed it, if she was weary or tired he would just have to trust her to say something. They entered the tent after navigating the maze of buildings, at least their guild knew the a route that was covered in shadows so the sun was not frying their wits. When they got to the small tent he froze, stared and the tent flap stared back. On it in bold red paint stood an archaic symbol to ward evil. They all had frozen up looking at that symbol and having it look back with disturbing intensity.

Even Suoi stood with them in the sun hesitant to walk up to the tent with such a foreboding entrance.

"Come on." Raine chuckled, the sound was forced. "It's just paint and superstition, and that can't hurt us."

She entered and Colette seemed to shake off her fear, and followed. Kratos made a slight gesture with his sword hand, little more then a flick of two fingers to ward off ill fate, then gripping the hilt of his blade he entered. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the night world under the tent, a woman in purple robes looked at him with a smile on her lips.

"Well met Kratos Aurion, you bring no ill will so fear not for none shall befall you."

He gazed at the Chosen and her teacher accusingly but both woman looked baffled.

"We didn't introduce ourselves, or you, if that's what you're thinking..." Raine said, then she turned to the woman. "You must have skilled informants."

"Believe what you will... And please don't say "I don't need your permission to believe what I will"... I do not mean it like that."

Raine's mouth sagged open in complete shock.

"Is there anything else I need to say to prove my authenticity? Or will you believe that I have means beyond a normal humans to see that which should remain unseen?"

"That or you are a very good reader of body language _and _you have an extensive network of spies."

The human woman shrugged off the elf's disbelief as she had probably shrugged off the disbelief of thousands of others. She smiled at Colette then she looked at him and the smile slid off her face.

"Your pain, I am sorry for it."

Kratos grunted, narrowed his eyes, and let his hand drift to the hilt of his sword.

"No need to threaten, I respect what He of Eternity hides from my vision with the Dark between the Stars... You owe him thanks for doing that, normally I'm a nosy old coot." She smiled at him, then looked back to Colette. "I can only help you a bit child, my full service is for another, and he's late as always."

The old woman rolled her eyes.

"How can you help us?" Raine snapped, growing exasperated before him. That was a first that he never expected to come to pass.

"First I must have a hundred gald."

Kratos tossed ten _deic_ coin on the table besides her crystal ball. Ten deic equaled about a hundred gald, merely a slight fraction under the amount. Like most commoners the fortune teller either didn't know or didn't care that it was off by a bit. She smiled, reached out with a thin hand, and carefully counted the coins. Satisfied she pulled a small box from under her chair and put the money inside that.

"You look for the seal of fire, the ruins hold one of the keys you seek... I imagine one of the tourist centers could help you better then I could with directions."

"Thanks!" Colette then went outside, Suoi went with her.

It was a good thing she left, and that the tent could muffle sound. Raine snarled a line of profanity in elvish and stormed out of the tent.

"I believe my apparent knowledge of both the material and non-material worlds has greatly upset her. It must do with her attempts to be all knowing." The woman smiled. "She will out grow it, or perhaps grow into that role she seeks, or become as close as a mortal can come to it. Mr. Aurion your heart is in peril with this journey. Guard it close if you wish to complete your job with little pain... but open it if you wish to rise above all other men and be blessed with the God's greatest status."

Kratos said nothing, but swept from the tent. No... he fled. He was running, after so many years though he could feel no shame in that. It felt as if he had been running for eternity now.

Xxxx xxx xxx xx xx x

"Hooot... so hooot... Genis please!"

"I can't, it's just to hot to cast more water spells..."

"Whiiine!"

"Not... much farther, look there's Triet..."

"Please don't be another mirage..."

"Whiiine!"

"Goddess Lloyd you're almost as bad as Noishe."

"Whiiiine!"

"Can't talk... need water..."

"I can try again..." Genis offered.

"No, just keep walking, can't be that much farther off right? We can do this, we have to do this..."

They were walking through the desert, had been walking for what felt like forever. Their feet were cooked in their boots, their wits all but scrambled... In truth they had only been journeying through the lands of fire for four hours. Sunset was magnificent, the whole sky was painted a myriad of molten hues and fanciful shades of red and deep blue. All they saw was the next step, all they could feel was how each molten rock slammed into their feet, and it was with morbid intensity that Lloyd -while he walked- waited for smoke to slither out from under his toes. When they finally made it through the city gates, which were little more then a crude arch constructed from sand stone, the whole world seemed to have dissolved into a gold tinted oven temperature dream, well if dreams had temperatures oven would have been the lowest setting that Lloyd would have given it.

All thoughts of dreams, heat, everything, left their thoughts the second they drifted towards on of the towns inns.

"Red shirt, brown hair, brown eyes you say?"

They froze, in the middle of the sun blasted expanse of sand, in what must of been in the center of Triet's marketplace, the most busy place in the town they froze. Their lack of movement, drew in a few curious eyes, made them all the more noticeable. Genis ribbed him, and they both ducked behind Noishe. Hiding behind a green and white dog in the middle of a city whose main color scheme was brown and tan probably wasn't the smartest move. There were dumber moves though, like walking out in the open, like approaching the men in their skin tight black and maroon uniforms and asking "are you Desian's?", like... well there were probably a few other dumb moves but those two were the dumbest he could think of at the time. Braving a glance over the massive silver and green shoulder Lloyd glimpsed the men, the Desians had there back to them, were talking amongst themselves. One of them pulled a rolled up bit of paper and stuck it to the wall of the inn, he couldn't see what it was through because Noishe whined at him and Lloyd ducked his head down. The dog seemed happy enough now that he was half stooped over and not so out in the open. He saw nothing more then his boots, and this time as his heart hammered in his throat he had no thoughts of smoke and burning toes.

Between one step and the next they were in the shade. Even in his fear he could feel how cool it was in she shadows, he hesitantly lifted his head. They were in a small box like building, well it wasn't even a building really, just a collection of three walls and fabric nailed to those walls that served as a roof. Along one of the walls was a strange long rectangular box, it took him a moment to realize it was a traw, like a horse traw As they slink-ed into the shadows of a empty stable stall Genis swallowed, wiped at his brow, and Lloyd could not get himself to let go of Noishe. They both stood, no trembled in the concealing shadows and shook.

"They're out here?" He whispered it over and over again, as if reciting it could undo the fact. "How can they be here, out in the middle of no where?"

"_We'll never stop searching so long as you draw breath_..." Genis whispered, his eyes so empty that they seemed to be looking back and seeing the green haired man who had said those words.

"Damn Desian's, what the heck are we going to do, we can't leave and..."

"Sirs?"

Both boys hopped as a very small child in tattered tunic and pants stood less then a few feet behind them. A slash of white teeth marred the dark tan of his face, with a dirty hand he pulled a strand of rebellious black out of his eyes and adjusted his weird bandage hat thing.

"Lloyd Irving and Genis Sage, correct?"

"Y..yeah..." Lloyd was so startled he didn't do his usual 'give me your name and I'll give you mine' routine, considering that the kid already had their names it was kind of pointless anyways. When he didn't do it he felt all un-tough, all weak, he didn't like that. If he wasn't strong, if he was weak then he couldn't protect Genis, he had to toughen up so he could protect his friend, and Colette, whenever they caught up to her that was...

"Whoa, what happened to _Give me your name and I'll give you mine_?"

"You're not helping Genis... Alright you already seem to know us and all, so what do you want?" That sounded tough, not a great save but it worked, kind of...

"The Mistress wishes to talk to you. Her tent is at the top of the hill, she can help you greatly, go to her when you can... I'll keep an eye out for the Desian monsters and let you know when they have stopped loitering around the walls of the town."

"What.. Umm yeah thanks, we'll be here then."

The young kid slipped out of the stable and into the sun cooked square Genis snickered.

"You don't know what loiter means don't you? It means to linger, to stand around and do nothing."

"I knew... I just forgot, that's all..."

"Un huh."

"Bark!"

"Noishe your supposed to be on my side!"

"Bark!"

"Shhh... The Desian's will hear us!" Though Genis was trying to be serious Lloyd could hear the snickers in his voice.

Things deteriated rapidly as they both fought down a case of the giggles. In the shadows, crouching behind Noishe, with death and worse waiting for them if they were caught, they choked on laughter. It got to the point that even Noishe was making soft muffled yips that sounded almost like a human chuckle. Lloyd wasn't sure how long they hid in the stall choking on laughter, what he did know is that when the boy came back he looked at them for a long moment and rolled his eyes. That set them off into even more laughter, and it took even longer for Lloyd to pull himself together.

"I... take it the coast is clear?"

"Yes..." The boy looked at them as if disappointed. "I can not believe... never mind, come this way."

"You can't believe _what_." Lloyd pressed.

"You will find out on your own, come friends of the Chosen."

Genis followed the boy, still in the stable Lloyd turned to Noishe.

"Stay! No adventuring, no leaving the stable, I don't want the Desians to hurt you... So you have to stay here, alright?"

"Bark!" Noishe winked, which made that bark a definite 'I'll do what ever I want' kind of bark.

"Please Noishe, stay here till I get back..."

Noishe licked him on the cheek then firmly head butted him out of the stable. His dog's shove -there wasn't another word for it- was so firm that he staggered out of the stable and tripped over his own feet and pulled what was fondly known throughout Iselia as a Colette-step. Picking himself off from the dust coated ground Lloyd tried to ignore the stares of what must of been every person in the whole square. He spared a moment to adjust his swords, then he ran to catch up with Genis and their guide.

They passed from the shadows of the buildings, crossed a expanse of blistering open ground, and after a few misadventures where there guild became lost, came into the welcome dark of a tent. A woman in purple robes looked up from caressing a orb of glass, she took their unannounced entrance not in surprise, but humor.

"You are late." She noted.

"I'm sorry Mistress, we became turned around and..."

"Umm where were we going again and are we there yet?" Lloyd asked, blinking owlishly in the near midnight dark of the tent.

"And I have been dealing with _that_ the whole walk. If I may gather my pay and be dismissed Mistress."

"Of course Suoi, and don't worry he will mature... slowly but it will happen." The woman smiled, then set five gald on the table. "Off with you now I must talk to them alone."

Both natives of the dessert ignored the loud 'what do you mean by that?', and brushed off the barely contained temper as casually as they shrugged off the blistering sun that pounded on them day in and day out. Lloyd's anger was a poor comparison to the sun, a child's heated temper was nothing compared to the eternal fire that hung over their heads and tried to obliterate them every time they stepped outside.

"We were told you know where Colette is." Genis spoke up, more to get information then in any hope to get Lloyd to cool down.

"I will need a hundred gald in payment before I offer you my services."

"What!"

Genis and Lloyd huddled together to have a quick conference, and managed to come out with a grand total of thirty gald. With an embarrassed air Genis walked up to the woman in purple robes, he did not meet her black eyes, did not even look at her face, he merely put down the gald and returned to Lloyd. The woman looked at the gald, looked at them. She grimaced, and pushed the money away.

"Fortune has been harsh to you, I should not have asked such a thing from you two. Please, take your money back, I have no need of it."

"Ummm alright." Lloyd took the money back with a mix of relief and chagrin.

"The chosen has gone to the seal of fire which is located at the Triet ruins, it's not far from here, one of the tourist centers can give you a map."

"Thanks..."

"Really Lloyd do not feel so bad about being unable to pay me, I extracted full charge from one of your friends." She smiled at him. "The surly one who likes to wear black, you know who I'm talking about..."

"From Kratos!" Genis laughed. "And let me guess you told him to go to the tourist center after he paid you?"

"Why yes I did." The woman smiled. "Something about him tells me he deserved it."

"Oh he did..." Genis muttered, recalling the runt statement back in Iselia's temple. "He more then deserved it."

"Gloating is a bad habit of yours Mr. Sage, I could ask you to give me what gald you have and hold you to a promissary payment of the other seventy gald with interest."

"Interest?"

"Never mind Lloyd now we know where we need to go so let's get going."

"Actually, Lloyd..." The woman gave him a pointed look, her hands caressed the glass orb on the table. "I'd like to give you a reading."

"We can't pay you though..."

"No need, what you do in the future will be payment enough... please... sit." A chair dragged itself from the one half of the tent that was covered in clutter and slid right up to the startled swordsman.

Genis stood, his mouth sagging open at the human's display of magic.

"Mr. Sage, if it isn't a problem could you go pick up that map and wait with Noishe at the stable. Put some speed into it, a stableman is going to see your friends... dog and cause some problems if you aren't there to head them off."

Genis all but fled.

"Good boy, a little on the brattish side, but still good at heart. Now then," She set the orb aside with a smile. "Your hand please."

With a grimace Lloyd extended his left hand, then catching himself he started to pull it back in and offer his right.

"No I need the first hand you moved, I can't get a good reading off of your right hand because it isn't your prominent hand. Don't be shy, I don't bite, and I don't particularly care if you have an ex-sphere on that hand. I may have my vices young man but working with the Desian's is not one or them. There see, that wasn't too bad..."

She set her slender fingers to caressing his palm, drawing out the various lines and studying the veins that could be seen in his wrist.

"You have many friends now and will gain many more. That table of yours, it will be full in less then five years passing, as will be your heart. You once called this a quest of a lifetime, know that it is that, and it will be then end and beginning of lifetimes. It will be the conclusion of an eternity and the conclusion of a tyrant's rein.

All things will fall on you, a heavy burden and one you shall have to shoulder alone for a time. Yet others will come to strength under your guidance, and when they have that burden shall be shared then banished. For now that burden is not yours but another's, and at the end which is in truth a beginning that burden will be thrust upon you.

There are many on this path you have met and are to meet, it is not the time for you to tell me of those in the future but those you know of now.

You have five guilds, the guild of the soul, the mind, the heart, the child, and the fire. Listen well to them but head this warning, there will come a time when each will be silent, and the one who is silent is the one you will need the most. During this time you must then look on the past and recall all teachings and draw strength and wisdom from that.

The soul will seek to guild you with firmness and experience. His only tongue out of a multitude of tongues is truth, and remember that always. No matter the circumstances put before you both, no mater the odds, you both will meet on the even ground of honesty and brutal bluntness." Her lips twitched a bit. "Try not to cut each other to pieces with your tongues and don't take everything he says to heart. He is learned in many things, but tact eludes him. His guidance will be your salvation, and know no matter what happens between you you may turn to him with any grievance great or large and he will do his best to aid you.

The mind is from your past, and one you know well. Her passion is great and her love of knowledge greater. She is... to put it delicately 'eccentric' but if you sit quietly through her bouts of strangeness with patience you will be spared much pain... and you will learn much. There will come a time when all knowledge will fail her and what will be needed is time, you must give her that. It will be her hand that tends your wounded body, that will nurse you back to health when you fall, and you will fall a multitude of times, and with each fall you must be the feet for both of you, she will be your calm and you shall be her hope.

The heart is gentle, and known to you from earliest childhood. You know her well and forever protect her. There will come a time when she will protect you to give you strength when the time comes that your strength will fail you. She is hope and joy, a light in the dark, a lone star in the night of eternity. Guard her with twin walls of steel, do not fail this delicate flower for from her comes hope and hope will be needed in the very end.

The child, well he just left." The woman smirked, then picked up her orb and looked at it for a moment. "And he did what he needed to do just in time. He's not all that fast is he?"

"Genis?" Lloyd rubbed at his aching head. "Not really."

"I see the soul is not the only one who needs some lessons in tact."

"What'd I say?"

"Never mind... He is as his title indicates, a link to childhood, innocence, and that which you may very well lose when this all comes to a head. Innocence is the answer, one of the answers, and one of the greater insights to all of this mess you are going to be wading through." The woman smiled. "I see many mudpits and puddles in his past... could you explain that?"

Lloyd blushed, recalling the time that he and Genis had rough housed and fallen into muddy patches of ground, that's how all of their childhood games had seemed to end.

"I also see many more in his future... you'll need a better explanation when that time comes around."

"Umm yeah I'll work on that..."

"The fire, she is both a bearer of flame and a bearer of the pain flame can bring. Fate has not been kind to her, and she has grown to use fire as a shield. Do not let the smoke fool you but do not grow careless, she can and will turn her true essence on you a time or two... Though I see that it will mainly fall on another who will well deserve it." She looked at his hand intently. "Her mark is no mark, and it will fall here."

The woman spread his fingers out then gently traced a line between his thumb and first finger.

"And that young man is all I may tell you, you best run along now, come back whenever you are by. I would like to talk to you again, I imagine when you are not in a state of shock you are good company." She smiled at him and patted his limp hand. "Fate is waiting for you outside this tent, don't make it wait too long."

"Umm thanks..."

"No problem, and don't worry if you don't quite understand everything I said, it will make sense in time. Now get going, before I change my mind and do charge you!"

Lloyd fled and the woman sighed.

"Such a heavy destiny for one so young... It is a shame that is must come to this..." She pulled out the glass orb and looked into it. "Yet there is no other way out of the madness save that of the straight path, and that path must cut through a multitude of webs and mist to see the truth, and only a speaker of truth, one who lives solely by truth and instinct can even see that path. And even then it may be clouded..."

Xxxx xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx

"What took you so long?" Genis snapped.

"The fortune teller had a lot to say, a ton to say, and now my heat hurts."

"Why am I not surprised..." Genis grinned at him.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

Genis laughed at Lloyd for a bit. After getting tired of hearing his _master_ get teased Noishe stretched his neck out from the pen and mouthed a chunk of Genis' hair. With a firm tug he totally mussed up the young elf's hair and covered it with a great amount of saliva. As Genis "eww"ed and reached up with cringing fingers Lloyd had his turn in laughing.

"Good boy Noishe." Lloyd ruffled his dog's mane. Noishe's tail went nuts wagging and the tongue lolled out. Lloyd ducked out of reach of his dog's jaws and avoided the licking. "We'll be back in a bit Noishe, howl if trouble comes."

"Bark!" With a parting tail wag Noishe watched them go, then ducked into the shadows of the stable, and on crossed fore paws pillowed his head and got ready for a nap.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Professor are you sure we're going in the right direction?" The Chosen dared to ask. They had been walking a long time and well it seemed too long for even the Chosen's inexhaustible patience.

"Yes, Colette, the map said south west, and that is the way we are going."

"Ms. Sage the guild said that the map was not accurate, he gave us the proper directions."

"I'd trust the map over a guild any day Mr. Kratos."

"At the rate we are going we are going to be back in Iselia by midnight tonight."

"We will not be in Iselia, we will be at the temple!"

Kratos took a deep breath, counted to ten in the common language, angelic, and elvish, and still did not feel the tenseness ease out of him. He wanted, rather sorely, to smack the woman with the flat of his blade and drag her in the right direction. Colette, the peaceful, happy, carefree, Chosen, was sharing his thoughts. He had yet to dwell on homicide, or elvish-cide if that was even a word, but he was getting to that point with every mile they went in the wrong direction. It was with relief that the Chosen finally admitted she was tired, and they set up camp. When the Chosen went to her blankets with a yawned "good night" Kratos snatched the map out of the older woman's hands. He looked at the map for a second, then firmly turned it over so that it was no longer upside down, and handed it back to her.

"We have been heading in the wrong direction Ms. Sage."

"But now the writing's upside down!"

"This is perhaps one of the worst maps I've ever seen." The mercenary growled, "it looks like he put in the landmarks first then held it upside down to write the town names. I guess it could be accurate, if Iselia were located at the top of the world."

"The proportion is grossly inaccurate... Perhaps I made a mistake in trusting that map-maker..."

"There's an understatement." Kratos snapped, he was not pleased, having wasted a full day going in the wrong direction.

"You don't need to beat me upside the head, I made a mistake, I apologize."

"Humph."

"We'll head back to Triet then, restock our water, and then head in the right direction."

"Yes, but from here on Ms. Sage I will be in charge of guiding this expedition, if we were to leave you in charge it would take the Chosen twenty years to get to where she needs to go." He extended his hand and she dropped the map in it. "All the maps Ms Sage, the compass, and any other items that have to do with navigation, you have proven well beyond a shadow of a doubt you have no skills in leading, so it shall fall onto me. Let's hand everything over all at once so there is no confusion later on."

With a air befitting a child handing over a toy she handed him several maps, two compasses and a strange device that looked like a nick covered half circle.

"Is this all?"

Another map was handed over, and a glare on top of that.

"This better be all Ms Sage, is it?"

"Yes, it is." Her eyes were like slits of ice

"I will take night watch then, go to bed Ms. Sage."

"I am not a child Mr. Aurion. Just because I made one mistake doesn't mean I am a simpleton, and it doesn't make me a child, so don't treat me like one."

"When you prove yourself other wise Ms Sage I will treat you with more respect and trust in your judgement, until then go to bed."

She could do nothing but fold to him at that point, and by the steely glint in her eyes he knew that she was going to go out of her way to prove himself. When she was safely wrapped in her blankets and her breath had slowed to the pattern universal to those in deep sleep Kratos smiled. Good, that was good, he would see no more foolishness out of this one, perhaps she would even become serious about this whole journey. That alone would make his job a hell of a lot easier. Once child was bad enough, he needed no others to look after. All but alone the mercenary looked to the stars and allowed those flickering lights to drain away his anger, his frustration, and to calm his mind from the turmoil that had been raised in his soul. He sighed, looked at the stars, and allowed all burden to fall away from him for a moment, for his soul to soar to the lights above and find solace from his pain. Calm again he looked to the world around him with cold unfeeling eyes. There would be no problems tonight, something in him told him this, there would be no problems, perhaps in the end everything would turn out alright. He could hope in the very least, after all if you were going on a journey to save the world holding onto some hope was nessicary to staying sane. Something told him that by the end of this journey he'd need every scrap of sanity in his possession.

_He then suddenly saw with a surreal vividness a child. She had clambered up a green covered hill, her blonde hair flowed out behind her, caught the sunlight. White tunic, pants, jacket, all were tinted silver in the sun's light, as was her hair turned gold. She laughed as she ran, oblivious to the dangers around her, discarding her clumsiness in her joy. Though she tripped once she did not alow that to slow her down, she laughed as she ran, laughed as she tripped, determined to get to the top of that hill and to do so with a smile. He moved to go to her, to shadow her, but a hand held him back. He looked down at his sword arm, saw the slender snow hued fingers wrapped around his thick forearm. He allowed his eyes to follow the path of those fingers to a hand, followed that hand to an orange clad shoulder, and went father up until he looked into those calm dark blue eyes. She smiled at him, she who held him back, her slender lips pulled into a smile that caught and lit her eyes. _

"_Let her go, she wont get hurt."_

"_As you will."_

_He rolled his shoulders, and the woman let go of his arm. He didn't have to say anything about how he despised being touched, she wasn't so much of a fool to miss the obvious hints. Sensing his mood she took a step away from him, and he was a little surprised to see disgust on her face. Oblivious to them both the child was on the hill calling out to something that they could not see. What in the names of the higher powers did she think she was doing? She was giving away their location and..._

"_Don't get too mad at her." The elf grumbled. "She's still a child, let her be that for just a little while longer."_

"_She demeans what she is with this foolishness."_

"_No, she enriches it... I know you're going to get very sick and tired of this, but Lloyd once said something to me that I find rather fitting. We all look at her like she's special, like she's devine, and we all forget the most important thing of all. She's still a child, she's still a human, and journey or no nothing is going to change that... In some ways Lloyd is very wise, and I wish that he could have come with us sometimes. He has a way of seeing into things that no one else can, in seeing a straight path when all everyone else sees is tangles. We all thing that the "Chosen" is god touched, is an angel from the day that she is born, and we asked her to be like that... no we forced her. And she isn't and now.. Now I see that, and I think we've all wronged her in making her into something that she isn't. I owe her an apology for that, and allowing her to play a little is part of that apology I owe her. So if you have to grit your teeth, count to ten, or whatever you want, just keep quiet." _

_He blinked, startled at the woman's observations as much as her order for him to keep quiet. With a growl he shook his head, and watched as the child called out to some unseen person in vain hope of being answered. And even in the sunlight, even in the peace around them there was something so pathetic in the gesture, not childish, but truly tragic. She called out yet no one was there to answer, the even though she was hoping for, her hope in some random fairytale wasn't coming true. No matter her hope it would never come true._

Xxxx xxx xxx xxx

He ran, cried as he ran blindly while the sun was little more then a memory and the cold shards of silver light above illuminate the path around them. Tears blurred the world, the silver lights and the silver highlighted ground were so intermixed that he stumbled no few times. Each miss step he would reach out to grab the ground, and feel with dubious pleasure the sand scrape against his skin like small claws, like small teeth. He was bleeding, and could do nothing about it. Lloyd had been carrying all their supplies and now..

One foot in from of the other, one foot in front of the other, don't remember, don't think!

But he never could stop thinking, it was his way to always think.

_Blade slashed though the air, wood clacked against steel, deflected it. With a curse the brown haired swordsman ducked, an arrow whizzed through the air where his head would have been. Genis squeaked, and just like all the times before when he got into a fight he froze. Words of mana lodged in his throat, he couldn't think but he could see. He watched as Lloyd fell to the ground clutching his leg, an arrow glittered in the sunlight, winked with a slyness that was disgusting. Lloyd grimaced, then with trembling hands ripped the arrow out of his thigh with a scream._

"_Pathetic, not even worth the arrows to bring him... ack!"_

_Lloyd blindly lashed out, caught the Desian with the sharp of his blade, and though it was just a wooden sword the man crumpled in half. The other swordsman shook his head, waited as Lloyd using a sword as a prop found his feet, the lone archer grinned, lifted the crossbow with Lloyd in his sights. Lloyd turned, saw the man, and more importantly saw the swordsman eyeing a young child nearby. It was as if Lloyd looked at his enemy and went into the Desian's head and saw what he was thinking._

"_Genis, cover me!"_

_With those last words Lloyd ran at the swordsman, blades flailing through the air with no grace, only stubborn will. Startled the Desian tried to go through with his idea anyway, and Genis saw in horror the man grab that child. The little girl screamed, Genis screamed, and he watched as Lloyd brought his blade down on the man's arm. There was a loud crunch, the Desian sank to his knees howling. A steel sword clattered to the dust ground, a child sobbed out in gratitude then ran._

_And the archer, forgotten in the heat of the moment lifted his weapon and fired._

_Lloyd fell soundlessly to the dessert floor, his limp body stirred up dust and set it flying in a great cloud. The sound of Lloyd hitting the earth, and the sight of him not moving... Nausea rouse in him, he wanted to puke, to run, but he couldn't. His legs wouldn't stop twitching, if he tried to move he knew he'd just collapse and not get up._

_This couldn't be happening, not to Lloyd! Lloyd was always there to protect everyone! He never got hurt, never, this couldn't be happening!_

_Cold hands descended on his shoulder. They grabbed him, dragged him, even as one Desian came out of nowhere to pick Lloyd up and carry him. A few more were materializing just out of the edge of his vision, slipping from the shadows and the marketplace to take their fallen comrades and drag them off. He numbly followed, whimpered, and quietly cried as he walked and saw the hero of his childhood fallen and slung over a Desian shoulder like some hunters trophy. _

"You told me to protect you and I didn't... I didn't... I'm sorry Lloyd I am..."

Noishe stopped walking, turned to face him and then gently licked his cheek, as if to say everything was going to be alright. He then looked around them, at the featureless dunes, and with a sniff he swerved his head around. Seeing something that Genis couldn't even imagine what it was, it all looked the same to him, Noishe turned and started padding off in a new direction. They crested a hill, walking farther and farther away from Triet and back to Iselia, and then he saw it. He froze as he looked down at the camp, his legs buckled from the potent mix of wariness and shock. He hit the sands with a quiet whimper, a whimper that was mimed by Noishe. The dog looked at him, looked to the camp, then gently picked him up by the scruff of his shirt and carried him down the last hill, down to safety.

But was it safe, was there really a safe place at all. In the cold night, so scared and alone Genis didn't know if he'd ever feel safe again.

Xxxx xxx xxx xx xx xxx xx xxx

"Noishe?" Kratos stood, shook off his woolgathering, and looked at the dog in shock. It took him mind a bit to slowly realized what the burden that the dog was carrying in his mouth. "Genis?"

At his cries the tent flap was pulled open, Raine tumbled out, staggered on the sands, and joined him staff drawn. She looked, saw, and the staff fell to the sands. She ran up that hill, took Genis in her arms, and cried.

"Wha..." A yawn, and the sleepy eyed Chosen staggered out of her tent all the while rubbing at her mucked up eyes. She wore a loose pair of sky blue pants and a baggy same hued tunic. "What's going... Noishe... Genis!" Then she made the observation that sent his shocked mind into near turmoil. "Noishe, where's Lloyd!"

Raine mutely carried her brother to the firelight, and it was in that light the full extent of his injuries were revealed. Kratos hissed in sympathy, covered in scrapes, bruised, the young elf had been obviously miss treated by terrain and human hands. Noishe was in better condition, baring only a small scratch on his face. Raine already had emptied her packs, drawn out bandages and medicines and was stooped over her brother applying both in generous amounts. Her brother did not protest, and knowing what he did of boys Kratos took that in as a sign that the boy was greatly hurt.

"Raine... We made it... we're safe..."

"Shh everything's going to be alright Genis." Raine drew him close, held him, and in the arms of his sister the boy lost all control over himself and cried.

A few hours later, with generous healing mana applied Genis sat up and told them everything. Iselia was attacked, nearly destroyed, and he and Lloyd had thrown themselves into the mess trying to save the people. His voice cracked when he spoke of the human woman Marble, and the way he stroked his ex-sphere made Kratos suspect a few things, but he said nothing. He listened to the pronouncement of the mayor of Iselia with a openly disgusted face, and shook his head and growled as Genis spoke of the townspeople who had eagerly fallen in line with the Iselian mayor's pronouncement. Triet, the town's name was greeted with more tears and several hiccuping sobs, and through stammering lips Genis admitted what had happened. The Desian's had taken them, had attacked them, and after an ugly fight had dragged Lloyd off.

"You carried yourselves well for your lack of experience and ill experiences you endured." He told the boy crisply. "But you both should not have done what you did, your actions lead to your Marble's death and your own banishment."

"What were we supposed to do, nothing, just sit back and let them kill her!"

Genis met his gaze and shivered, then crawled to the sanctuary of his sister's arms. As Raine held her brother she looked at him, her eyes unfriendly and accusing. Even Colette would not meet his gaze, she busied herself on the other side of the camp. Noishe growled, then after giving him a flat stare went off with the Chosen

"Genis, what you did..." Kratos swallowed. "It was not morally wrong, but sometimes you must do what is immoral to save the lives of many, the consequences of following justice all the time are heavy, as you have learned."

"It shouldn't have to be like that, the world shouldn't have to be like that..."

"No," Raine held her brother, stroked his hair. "But sometimes it is Genis, I'm so sorry but sometime it is."

Genis only lay in his sister's arms and cried all the more.


	4. Escape

Lady Serefine: I've been meaning to ask are you a David Edding's fan? Your pen/screen name is very simular to one of my favorite characters in his books. Regardless thank you for your parise concerning Colette and keeping her in character!

FairyV: Hi, yeah poor Genis, he kind of gets a little better in this chapter, but this one primarily focus' on Lloyd though

MoonCannon: Thanks...I hope you like this one as well

A/N This chapter was in part inspired by my own experiences in the game... I think I'm the only person who had so much trouble with that electricity room lol! Also I didn't like how Lloyd just 'knew' what to do, or how things got so easy for him after he 'examined' the pedestal. So I made things harder... yeah I'm evil like that. Enjoy. Oh yeah and they don't fight Botta in the study, but somewhere else... This is the first part of the Artistic License I was talking about.

A/N: Wee I got my job back(For a week at the least stupid boss wont give me a definite "yes" or "no")... I will officially not be updating quickly... AKA Kasan equals turtle in way of updates... Sorry guys but that's how it is, you'll just have to be patient.

33 pages... it feels like sixty or something... as always enjoy my spin on TOS.

Chapter 4

Triet part 2

The Base

Cold, he was cold, shivering he reached up to grab the blankets, or to smack Noishe if he'd taken the blankets yet again. His hands slid across something smooth, cold. It was not ice cold, or snow cold, or even night cold... It was lifeless cold. He rolled over, shoved off the slick floor and looked around and saw, nothing. Nothing but darkness, he reached out, ignoring the stab of pain in his shoulders, and felt around him. Again nothing, nothing but slick floor. He stood, and winced as his head smacked against the ceiling. He gasped out profanities, and stood, or rather stooped over like an old man all the while rubbing his head. After a bit of time had passed, and he ran out of curse words in dwarvish and human Lloyd sat back down, and scooted around the room all the while reaching out with his hands. It took him a while to find the walls, and that discovery only told him that the walls were made the same was as the floor.

Suddenly he heard a rumble, the far wall slid aside, two figures stepped in with the blinding light, pinned his arms. He tried to fight, to struggle. One of them looked coldly at him, he could see blue eyes regard him, calculate his worth. Decision made a fist slammed into the back of his skull, and he knew no more.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

They regarded the massive domed building from behind a clump of boulders. After a days walk and a short cut through a tight ravine they had made it back. Noishe sniffed at the ground, looked at the dome, then barked. They had arrived. Kratos' hand drifted to his sword hilt, caressed the length of steel with gloved hands. Raine shivered, tightened her grip on her staff, her face grim. Colette only looked baffled, out of all of them she didn't understand...

He'd have traded places with her in a heart beat.

He knew, could imagine Lloyd in the prisoners garb, his body laced with bleeding wounds as the Desian's tormented him. He could easily imagine halls of hopeless eyes and emaciated victims, and Lloyd being among them. He had seen enough at Iselia's ranch to imagine what it was like. Yet unlike Iselia's ranch there was no massive yard where the prisoners worked. In this climate though such exertions would have killed off all the prisoners quickly, maybe they did something inside. Some sort of horrid labor that appeased some mad whim and went no where.

Noishe looked at the massive building and growled, he'd never heard Noishe growl like that before. It was like Lloyd's dog would have happily ripped apart everyone in that ranch. For once though he wasn't appalled by the violence, he was in total agreement.

"Good dog." He patted Noishe's side and was rewarded with a small lick.

"Raine hide the children then re-join me. We will make plans on what to do after."

"No." Kratos blinked, Raine blinked, and they all turned to Colette in shock. Genis had never heard Colette sound that... well that serious before. "I'm not hiding, I'm helping you look for Lloyd."

"Count me in too." Genis heard himself say, it was like someone else was talking through him. "It's my fault we got into this, I'm going to fix it."

"Out of the question, it's going to be dangerous enough to guard one person..."

"Then don't guard me Mr. Aurion, I know how to protect myself and I can protect my pupils. I _will,_ so all you have to do is help look for Lloyd. Certainly that wont be so hard for a mercenary."

"Ms. Sage, shut up." Kratos scowled at the building, and Genis was just happy he wasn't looking at them with that look on his face. He was scary enough without glaring on top of it. "As you will, your deaths wont be on my conscience. Colette, stay with me and let's get this over with."

"Wait, what about a plan of attack?" Genis squeaked.

"'_A plan of attack'_" The mercenary's tone turned Genis' question into an insult "You can't do much if you can't see the area. We have no plan save this, if the door is mundane we kick it in... and if it isn't then we just have to kick harder."

"I'll handle it." Raine butted in. "I know a little about machines, I might be able to get us in. So try not to kick so hard you break it."

Kratos snorted, said nothing.

As both adults went forward Genis held back for a second, and turned to Colette.

"Have they been fighting like this the whole trip?"

"Fighting?" Colette looked baffled.

"Never mind."

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

His arm... hurt, they'd stabbed him with something and it.. Well it hurt like heck. He clenched his fist on his left hand and had the dubious pleasure of feeling fiery needles crawled up his arm.

"Oww..."

"Shut up!"

Something clanged against the bars of his new cell. He'd woken up again, this time in a different cell. It was more of what he had expected, slick steel walls and floors, a pot for... 'going in' and a blanket left rumpled up in a corner to sleep on. Two guards seemed immersed in their card game, and every time he so much as grumbled one of them would throw a bright shard of red at him. Or more accurately at his cell.

He flexed his fingers, at least the he could do that now, it had been scary when he first woke up and couldn't even move his arm. A bandage was wrapped around his shoulder, the sleeve of his tunic had been cut off and his whole arm was bare, well except for the bandaged up spot around his shoulder. He reacher up with his right hand to ruffle his hair and think. He'd been here for hours, he didn't know how long he had been asleep, but awake he'd watched twenty games be played.

Genis, what'd they done to him? Was he here? He'd called out for his friend on his first time waking up and his guards had come in and beat him up till he had passed out. He hadn't had the guts to call out again.

With a grunt he stood, at least in this cell he could fully stand and not have to stoop, and he went to the bars and looked at the game with bored eyes. He had to get out, he had to think of a way to get out of here. Lloyd's hand drifted to his swords, and gripped nothing but air. Well that closed one way out... Cursing he tried to think, he crossed his arms in front of him and bowed his head. Light flashed off red, and Lloyd looked down at the small red band that ran along his left ring finger. The sorcer's ring, he'd totally forgotten about it!

A smile pulled on his lips as a bit of an idea came to him. It wasn't much of one, but with luck he could make it work. He'd just make up the rest as he went.

After a while of just standing and staring he decided to sit and stare, and it was then he saw the bits of red that hung around his cell. They were shards... no chips of bright red... something. He didn't recognize the material. A quick glance at the table told him that the guards were using it as some sort of game piece. And a bit of an idea came to him. He gathered all the shards that he could reach and piled them up. Twenty little red circle cut outs lay in his hand. Not much, but he didn't need all that much...

"Hey guys! Wow whoever's missing twenty of these gald pieces is a sorry loser."

There was a silence.

"Who's turn was it to go in their and beat him again, I forgot?"

"Don't know, he's kind of pissed me off though."

"I'm rich over here, man look at all this money. One.. Two... Three pieces of gald..."

"I almost wish we could both beat him now..."

Lloyd grinned, and recalling the tone of voice of that questioning kid that drove Raine wild tried his best to mimic it. "Four.. Five... Six..." He clinked the pieces together and both guards were looking angry.

"Flip a coin?"

"No, I'm going."

"Hit him a few times for me..."

"Whatever, just don't look at my hand."

"Trust me."

"The guy who plays with a six sided die that only has two numbers, you have to be kidding."

Lloyd stopped counting pieces and waited. The guards grunted, looked at him and the chips in his hands. They must of been valuable because the guard tossed a hesitant look at his partner and then smiled at him.

"Come on little boy, come over here and hand that all over and I'll go easy on you..."

Lloyd only shook his head, mock cringed back.

"Hey, I tried to be nice."

The guard reached over, pressed a button that Lloyd could have reached had he noticed it earlier. He felt really stupid for missing that, but didn't have time to dwell on it. The guard entered, unwound his whip, and came forward. Lloyd only lifted the ring, and the guard paled. There was a loud 'whoosh' and both of the man's eyebrows caught on fire. Screaming curses the man dropped his whip and beat on his face with a hand.

"What the hell..."

When that guy came in Lloyd let off another sorcer ring 'whoosh' and left both men in the cell trying to beat out there burning eyebrows. When Lloyd closed the door on them they were just smarting up enough to rip off their huge steel helmets and smack themselves on the face. He ran to their post and saw his gear laid out and tossed all around. He muttered a curse, hadn't these guys ever heard of dwarven vow number sixty two; 'Leave what's not yours alone?'. But then Desian's didn't seem like the types of people to follow dwarf vows.

A commotion from the cell told him that he didn't have much time. He snatched everything, off the desk, even papers he didn't think were his -He was not losing his Dad's letter!- then stuffed it in his packs. Slinging it all over his shoulders or to his belts Lloyd ran out of the room. He came back a second later remembering his wooden swords.

xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Howl!" Noishe had cornered Kratos and it was almost as if he was yelling at the mercenary. "Howl bark, BARK!"

"Silence _dog_." Kratos snarled, that went too far for even her.

"Mr. Kratos be nice to Noishe!" He turned to her, his eyes cold. She didn't care, she was sick and tired of this. "He's worried about Lloyd and he doesn't like that you are making us wait."

"As you will Chosen."

"Stop that! Stop that right now!" Tears burned behind her eyes. She was unaware of how Genis and Raine were staring at them. She didn't care. "Stop being so mean... to me, to Noshy, to Raine, to Genis. Stop being a jerk!"

He stared at her in total shock.

"You... you yelled at Raine the whole trip, you were mean to Genis when he was hurt, and now you're bing mean to Noshy because he's worried... Stop yelling at us, stop being mean!"

She wiped her eyes, told herself Chosen's weren't supposed to cry. Chosen's weren't supposed to get angry either. They were supposed to forgive and tolerate everything because that's what Martel wanted in the world. A world where all the bad was forgiven, forgotten, and only good was left. Where all the anger between people was gone and everything was good. She was hurting Martel by doing this, by getting angry, and the guilt made her feel sick.

Unable to take it Colette turned on her heel and fled.

"Way to go Kratos..." Genis growled.

"You owe an apologue." Raine noted cooly. "And perhaps not just to her."

"Bark!"

Kratos gritted his teeth, cursed, then went after the girl.

Xxx xxx xxx

It smelled like oil, the air tingled all around him and his hair stood straight up. Boots slammed the floor less then a inch away from his nose. Voices chattered around him, he wasn't paying attention though. He was trying not to move, not to breath. Alarms had begun to howl, to whoop after he made it through a few rooms. Guards had barged into the room, there were way too many for him to handle... More then he could count. So he had slid under the weird wire and metal lump that rested in a pit at the room's center, and luckily no one had seen him. Now it was only him and two guards.

"Man Lord Botta sure likes to do things the hard way... You're a spell caster, you deal with it."

"You know you could become a slightly competent one if you actually put some effort into it."

"Shut it and just wiggle your fingers."

"You know for that I might just _miss_."

"Do that and I might just _trip _while I'm holding my sword and accidently _poke_ you with the tip where you don't want to be poked."

There was a long pause on both men's part.

"I would so fry you."

"Not before I chop off things you don't want to be chopped off."

Another pause then two voices rose in laughter.

"Man how long have we been saying that to each other Ph'thon?"

"About three decades and it still hasn't gotten old Aroon."

"I think Lord Botta's right, we entertain ourselves far too easily..."

"Whatever," There was two loud booms and weird hiss that lingered. "What would you do without me? You'd get drunk, wander into this room, and be stuck here for days, that's what."

"Heh, remember the time you got drunk and wandered in here? You iced the panels good. Man, I thought that the Boss was going to skin you alive for that one. What are you getting, a fourth stipend until the payment's covered for the new ones that he had to put in?"

"A fifth..." The voice was mournful.

"A fifth, man that..." There was a hiss and a slam as the door closed behind them.

For a long moment Lloyd just stood still... well it was more crouched still since he was crouched under a mess of wires and steel. He was shook a bit. The way those guys talked... How many times had Genis teasingly told him he was toast? How many times had he countered that he was so fast with his sword Genis would be even shorter before the spell could get off? He'd lost count over the years.

Taking a deep breath Lloyd squirmed from his hiding spot. He sat by a weird pedestal trying to get his hair to not spark every time he ran a hand through it. His head hurt and he felt all weird, but that was probably cuz that metal thing kept zapping him while he was hidden. It also didn't help that his leg had a nasty gash in it that really hurt when he walked. It wasn't bleeding all that much, his pants were pressed against the wound so it wasn't bleeding as much as it could. Since he was alone and safe for the time being Lloyd pulled off the bandage on his arm, and blinked at the injury underneath.

A perfect circle had been cut out of his skin, it was the size of a piece of gald. No wonder his shoulder hurt.

Man it was so hard on his own. Genis wasn't there to give him ideas, no Colette to cheer him on... Geeze he was so desperate he'd have taken that Kratos guy and his endless sarcasm for company if the guy would give him a hint. It was so hard being alone. He really missed his friends. Closing his eyes he rested his check on the pedestal.

"Ow, shit!"

He rubbed his scorched cheek and glared at the miniature pillar thingie.

"I can't believe a rock just bit me! You stupid..." He kicked at it, his time it was his toe that got cooked by purple light. "Ack, Damn it... I thought only fire burned! Ow ow ow!" He hopped a bit, brought his toe up and breathed on his toes, that were very visible since the boot had literally been cooked away. "Man this stinks." He sniffed and made a face. "In more then one way..."

He put his stinging foot down, and learned first hand -or rather foot- how cold the steel was. A quick glance around showed him where the "panels" were. They were the only thing _not_ made of metal in the room. He stared at the green thing, walked across it, hopped up and down on it. Nothing, absolutely nothing. He sat, tapped his head with a finger trying to remember where he'd heard that sound before...

He recalled the time Genis had tossed a fireball in his father's smithy and set off a small explosion. No that hadn't made the right sound...

He recalled the water spell Genis used on him as they trekked through the dessert. Considering he was on cold steel tiled floor he quickly banished those thoughts.

Certainly wasn't wind mana, not earth mana, so what was left?

He rubbed his head, sparks snapped from his hair, and he had it!

Lightning! Thunder! Electricity! That was it!

Now all he needed was a small thunderstorm in room and he was set!

Then reality reared it's head... Without Genis he might as well be stuck, unless he wanted to rub his head against the tiles and hope that it would open the doors. But then staying here forever was pretty stupid, and if it worked... Well if it did he wouldn't say a word to Genis about how he did it. Taking a deep breath, hoping he was right, Lloyd went to the pedestal and with a grimace lowered his head.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

Sand crunched under his feet. That ruined his silent step, but this time stealth was not his purpose. A little noise wouldn't kill him, so he made no pains to correct the loudness of his foot falls. He listened, followed the soft sobs to a cluster of rocks.

_A child, she is nothing more then a child who runs from the eyes of those she knows to cry. She is still a child, a lover of child's games, an innocent. She should not be forced into this, forced to be a Chosen, to go through these trials. If there are any Gods still left in this world I would strike them down to make this madness stop, to allow this child to _be _a child._

He grimaced, adjusted his sword, and leaned against the rock he knew she was crouched behind.

"Chosen?"

A sniffle was his only answer. She was probably trying to pull herself together. A sick feeling settled in his stomach. One he was all too familiar with, guilt. He was the cause of her tears, his callous nature, his lack of tact. Had she been an adult such a reaction would have disgusted him, he would had left her to cry alone and hope the experience would have put some steel in her. But she was a child, a child who was coming to womanhood in the shadowof ideals so strict it was a miracle she was who she was.

Lesser people would have allowed those ideals to control their lives, to sculpt them into a proper image.

And despite the fact he did not like her flightiness, her childishness, he had to admire her for the strength of self to just _be_ herself.

_Hold onto that thought, allow it to be felt in your tone, if you don't she's going to run off._

"Chosen, I owe you an apology."

Nothing, silence, shocked silence if he was any judge.

"You are right, I have been high handed with you, your friends... For that I apologize."

A sniffle, more subdued.

"I guess..." He paused for effect, groped at the air in front of him as if trying to capture a thought. "I am far too used to traveling alone. I expect you and your friends to be up to my level of expertise. That is why I press them so hard, and why I get frustrated so easily when they fail."

He was rewarded with the sound of her finding her feet. He said nothing more, did not move, only waited. She did not disappoint him, she came out of her hiding spot and only when she saw him did he allow himself to turn towards her. He hoped his face looked sincere and somewhat friendly. Her tired smile made him think he had succeeded.

"It's alright... I forgive you."

"The time of waiting is almost done, we should head back... If that's what you want of course."

She nodded, rubbed at her eyes. She cried with good grace. No red swollen nose or flushed face marred her expression. Only thin tracks, tears that shined in the sun's light like crystals. She fumbled at her belt pouches for a bit and Kratos understood what she sought and produced a handkerchief from his own pouches with a flourish that made her giggle. He stayed with her while she collected herself, and was almost surprised that after she had dried her face that he could not have known she had cried unless he had seen it. Had any told him otherwise and he had not been present for this he would have not believed it. With no hints of sniffle or tears the Chosen looked to him and quietly suggested that they go back before Raine decided to give him a "Raine treatment" for making her worry. Not quite understanding the saying Kratos shrugged, and kept pace. His hand hovered over the hilt of his blade, the steel was as familiar to his hand as the caress of a lover.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Owwww!"

Lloyd went flying, his hair leaking black smoke and spitting up sparks. His head rung like dad's hammer against steel. His body failed him and he lay twitching on the floor for several minutes.

Third time, and it wasn't working, when he got control over his limbs he crawled to his feet and glared at the pedestal with it's purple light and pulsing purple orb that wafted smoke just like his head. Irrational he grabbed at it, thinking only to drag it to the stupid tiles and _make _it open the door. It was only as his fingers curled that he realized his mistake and scrunched up his eyes. Nothing happened, his hand gripped a warm tingly orb that squirmed under his grasp.

He cracked open his eyes, stared at his left hand that gripped the floaty thing like it would grip Noishe' fetch toy.

"Alright," He gave it a tug and it didn't move. "Come on, move!" He pulled with all his might and fell back in his rump as his sweaty hand lost it's grip.

"Damn it, open the door!"

The orb of lightning mana only floated there.

"This sucks..." He glared at the mana and it offered no suggestions. "Man I really miss Genis, when I get out of here I swear I'm never going to tease him about using magic ever again."

Even with so generous an offer of good will no miracles happened.

"Alright, you asked for it." Gritting his teeth Lloyd tackled the orb and was again sent flying after a spectacular roar of thunder. He groaned, sat on his rump and stupidly shook his head. "Owww today's not my day..." He looked down at his stinging right hand and then to his unhurt left and the purple ring on his left gave him the hint that he needed.

Sort of...

"Huh, wasn't that red a little while ago?"

He continued to stare while his scrambled brain tried to think.

"It was red a little while ago! Cool, it changes colors!"

Another long pause, a very long pause.

"Wait if it throws fire while it's red then what'll it do now that it's purple?"

He only had to look at the pedestal and it's purple orb and all the singe marks along the room to figure it out.

"All I had to do was _touch_ it? That's it? Ung this is so unfair, these magic things should come with instructions or something! Alright!" Lloyd stood, walked to the green tile and pointed the ring down. "Let's see if this works..."

Ten minutes later he staggered out of the room, two floating steel things that shot out orbs of red light were little more then sizzling, dented, lumps of metal behind him. The first thing he'd learned from this was 'never stand on a Desian tile/button with an electric ring'. The second thing was 'when a door opens and floating plates with glowing red noses come out don't say _cool_ and stare'. These were worse then Raine's lessons, they weren't as boring, but they were worse cuz they hurt. A few halls a few doors and he came to a huge room with a floating box in it and a series of pillars.

He barely managed to not say _cool_ and stare at the box for a minute.

It was only when he went to a table and saw some weird notes that he realized what the whole room was. He'd just left one like it...

"Not again..." He sighed and looked around and right as Raine there it was. Another pedestal with a glowing purple orb. "Why me?"

xxx xxx xxx xxx

Genis rubbed his hands together, was shaking a bit. He'd never done something like this, he was scared that he'd get it wrong. But Kratos had told him that if he got it wrong the mercenary would kill the guards despite everyone else's protests. Talk about pressure to get it right the first time. Colette smiled at him, she trusted in him. Raine gripped his shoulder offering support. Genis ignored Kratos, he was so shook that if he saw the scorn, the lack of faith, he's lose his nerve.

"Alright, I'm gunna do it."

Genis wove his fingers, coaxed the mana from it's hiding placed all around him. Kratos faded from his world, drifted away with the speed of a bit of night facing the dawn. Colette's cheery smile, her pale face, and deep blue eyes faded from his sight more slowly. Raine's calm presence, her hand on his shoulder, the scent of ink and book, that lingered the longest. As if responding to his need for strength the mana touched his mind, made several memories hidden away come out. It wasn't the mana though, but his own shaky control and strong emotions that was making this happen. He couldn't fight it, he'd have to deal with it while he cast the spe-

"_I'm scared Raine, I'm scared_."

"_Shhh we're safe, there are no monsters inside. Nothing's in the closet, and if there was don't think for even a second I'd let it get my little brother." She smiled down at him, ruffled his hair. _

"Crystal shards of the ice maiden's..."

"_Don't worry Genis, it's just water, see, it doesn't bite!"_

_Lloyd splashed some water at his friend who was stubbornly sticking to the sandy rivers bank._

"_Look Noishe's swimming, and he's the biggest chicken out there, and he's not scared. Come on I know you're braver then Noishe!"_

"_Bar-" Noishe fell silent mid-enthused bark and seemed to consider what was just said. The dog gave Lloyd a long look. "Whine!"_

"_I don't know... I can't swim Lloyd. And Raine said..."_

"_Come on, I wont let anything bad happen, I've been swimming for like forever. Trust me OK?"_

"_Alright..." _

"-diamonds come forth and allow all mortals to behold thier magnificence..."

"_Genis, hold up!" _

_Colette laughed at his enthusiasm. She seemed shocked that he was so happy because they were going on a bug hunt. She held a net in her hands, absolutely insistent on catching a butterfly. He grinned back to her, dropped his seriousness just for a day of fun. Yeah he'd told Raine that he was going to study the bugs, hence the net and collection of jars, but he wasn't going to be all that serious about it. They rooted around in the grass, found caterpillars and beetles and even a ladybug.. ._

"_Eek!" Colette hopped back as a worm poked out from the dug up earth._

"_It's only a worm Colette." He smiled, then picked it up and allowed it to squirm freely in his hand. "See, look, it doesn't have teeth, it doesn't bite." He looked at it closely, nodded as he recognized the specie. "It eats earth Colette, dirt, and decomposing plant roots."_

"_Really?" She leaned forward, curiosity beating terror._

"_Yep!"_

"_Wow Genis you're really smart, and you're brave. Everyone else told me that worms were evil things."_

"_They look disgusting." He admitted with a grin. "But they aren't evil." He scooted the worm off of his hand and it slithered back into the ground where it wouldn't be bothered by birds or curious kids so easily._

"I-!"

"_Genis, cover me!"_

_Lloyd ran at the Desian that was going for the child, blade leading. He didn't see the archer, no he saw it and didn't care... _

_Not for himself, he wasn't in this fight for himself He never got into a fight just for himself. The first time Genis had seen him fight was when those bullies at school had pinned his arms behind his back, had called him pointy eared freak and clenched their fists. He saw the bullies grin at him, saw the Desian line up the bow, and heard Lloyd tell the bullies to back off. Even though it was the mayor's son who was leading them, Lloyd didn't care, he ordered them to let 'the kid' go._

"_Aww look it's the half dwarf here to stick up for Mr. pointy-ears!"_

"_Let him go Ivan."_

"_What ya gunna do Irving, fight me."_

"_Only if I have to. Let. Him. Go. Now."_

"_Or what?"_

_Lloyd swung his fist, Ivan staggered back and touched his bloody lip._

"_I'll have my father exile you freak!"_

"_Whatever..." Lloyd glared at the two guys holding Genis' arms, he cricked his knuckles and glared. Genis was let go, one of the humans gave him a shove so that he fell to his knees. He whimpered, hugged his knees and cried even as the bullies back off. They were gone with cat-calls of 'motherless bastard' ringing out behind them._

"_Hey little guy, you OK?"_

_He sniffled and looked up, not at a dwarf but another human!_

"_Yeah..." Genis cringed away from the guy. Irving was a human and... And human's were dangerous and mean._

"_I can't believe they did that to you. And just for being smart too, people don't make a lota sense sometimes..."_

"_For being smart?" Genis hiccuped._

"_Yeah, they used to gang up on me for being short."_

_How could this guy say that, he was huge, the tallest guy Genis had ever seen!_

"_You got a name?" Irving smiled at him, offered a hand, which Genis took with a smile._

"_G..Genis..."_

"_I'm Lloyd, hey aren't you that evil woman's son?"_

"_Evil woman?"_

"_The one who throws erasers!"_

"_Wha- that's my sister Raine! And she's not evil!"_

"_Oh... sorry..." Lloyd's stomach growled and he laughed. "Man I'm starved, look I'll see you around Genis."_

"_Wait, lunch hour's almost over! Where are you going?"_

"_Lunch hour... Oh wait you must go to that 'school' thing Dad was talking about. I'm supposed to head there too, but I can't find it so I went exploring in the forest. I found this really nice lake with fish in it and I was going to catch some lunch. Wanna come along?"_

"_No, we have to go to class. Raine was really mad when the new student didn't come in in the morning, I wondered what was going on. Come on, if we go now she wont get any angrier."_

"_Ummm," He looked Genis for a long moment. "Alright! Hey after we go see what's-her-name could you explain that lunch hour thing?"_

"_It's Raine and... and... 'Explain lunch hour?' You don't know what lunch hour is?"_

"_Nope," Lloyd shrugged. "Me and Dad always eat when we get hungry and Noishe always tells us when he's hungry so why'd you make an hour for it?"_

"Icicle!"

Two black clad guards turned the corner smartly, their shiny black boots slid and skidded on the mass of ice that covered the sands in front of the door. They cried out, slammed into the ground and slid on their rumps. Kratos lightly vaulted over the massive group of rocks they had been hiding behind. His cloak flapped behind him, the pooled as his feet struck sand. The guards looked up, one of them muttered a curse went for his bow, the other gapped at the human. Without breaking pace the mercenary drew his sword, freed his shield from it's resting place strung across his back.

The bowman's eyes widened in terror, he fired.

Lazily Kratos swatted the missile out of the air with his shield, one pass from his sword destroyed the bow. The mercenary hesitated on the very edge of the plate of ice. While his sword could reach them he could not, now without passing over the treacherous ground. He frowned, and Genis didn't blame the guards when they paled at that frown. Then a smile, a grim little smile curled the older human's face.

The guards if nothing else looked more scared.

With that grin Kratos pushed one of the guards with the flat of his weapon. With a squeak of protest the Desian slid to the other side of the bank. Kratos calmly followed, walking the parameter where ice met sand till he was to the place where the Desian had stopped. As the half elf in black scrambled to his feet the mercenary brought the flat of his blade on the man's head. He fell over with a loud thump and the human cooly dragged the Desian off. He came back a few moment's later, and stared at the remaining guard who was crawling on all fours to get back to the base.

"Ms. Sage, may I borrow your staff for a moment?"

Raine un-slung her staff, tossed it, and the mercenary caught it without turning.

"So Mr. Sage, since you are so very humanitarian today..." Kratos snagged the Desian with his staff, dragged him via a loose belt and ridge in the staff into range. "You wish me to do the honors?"

Genis said nothing, only closed his eyes in exhaustion. Ice was not his element, it didn't match up with him at all, and the fact that he'd been able to even finish the spell was amazing. Kratos though did not wait for Genis' response, merely dented the Desian's helmet for him. Then almost as an afterthought brought the weapon around and slammed it across the evil half elf's legs. There was a audible snap, and the Desian shuddered from the impact but did not wake up.

"Kratos!" Colette squeaked in protest.

"If you have an issue with my methods Ms. Brunel then talk to your mentor about healing this... man." Kratos forced the staff into the earth then turned to Genis. "If you'd be so kind as to melt this so we may get in?"

"Oh I... umm... Right." Genis swallowed, tried to ignore how tired he was and went through the motions of calling on fire mana. It came much easier then the ice had, and it took little of his inner strength to melt the ice so it was harmless water.

Brown eyes regarded him, seemed to be sheathed in the ice that he had dispelled.

"Not bad..." The tone made him shiver. "Not bad for a child. Ms. Sage, if you would." He indicated the number pad attached to the door with his sword.

"Right." Raine took a deep breath, walked through the water, and went to work.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

Five soldiers on his tail, cross bow bolts slammed into the wall to either side, sank into the carpet behind him with a hiss. Today was not his day. He saw the hall open up into three paths, and veered off to the left. A door, safety, he dove for it and like all the weird things in this place it opened without means of a door nob. Panting he staggered in, the guards had split up, not knowing what room he had gone into they were conducting a search. They hadn't gone in here yet, he was safe for a little...

"Urk!"

Lloyd froze, stared at the sword and the blue haired man who was pointing that sword at his throat.

"Well well what do we have here, a dog?"

The voice was smooth, arrogant. Soft, a mere whisper, but dangerous. Anger replaced Lloyd's new found caution.

"I'm not a dog Desian scum!"

Ignoring how his hand's hurt, how he hurt he went for his sword. Wood cleared it's sheath in a heartbeat and it clacked against steel, forced it down. The man's eyes widened, then a grin curled his lips. The steel blade spun, wove, entangled itself with wood until both weapons were locked to the hilt. With a sharp wrench the blue haired man disarmed them both, that wide smile still on his lips.

"Not bad for a little boy."

The man seemed unruffled that Lloyd's other sword had cleared it's sheath and was pointed at his throat. He took a step back and Lloyd moved with him. As he walked the black and gold uniform whispered around him, the black cut in half cape flapped a little, though there was no breeze to make it move in the slightest. For a second Lloyd could have sworn he saw a flicker of light over the man's shoulders, then nothing. It must of been his imagination or something...

"Well you have me," The man's lips quirked, he seemed to find the whole situation hilarious. "Now what? I can't drop my weapon, I disarmed myself rather then have you try to do it and cut off my arm..." The man cocked his head, regarded him intently. "You don't strike me like the torturing type no matter how wretched a _Desian_ I am."

"Shut up!" Lloyd's head swam, and the man chuckled.

"You're on your last legs boy, just sit down and I'll have guards carry you back to your cell. Rather considerate of me considering how much trouble you've caused me... But then my men were getting a bit lazy and a prisoner such as yourself will keep them on their toes."

"Where's the exit?"

"Back the way you came, the room with the pillars... Not that you'd be able to open it mind you, you have to be a magi to do that." The man calmly put his hands behind his back.

"Which ones do I hit with mana?"

"It completely depends on what ones you hit to get in here... By your words you must have some elvish blood in you, or a magic trinket of sorts..." The man's blue eyes flicked to Lloyd's hand, and he smiled. "Or you possess the Sorcerer's ring. _Wonderful_, I take it you are a companion of the Chosen." The man sighed. "A shame really if you were not I'd offer to let you go. Unfortunately I can't." A slender hand sheathed in purple light came out form behind the man's back. He leveled it at Lloyd's chest. "Farewell boy, to a gentler end you'll go by my hand then what awaits you at _his_."

"Wha- Oh not again!" Lloyd brought his hands up to block the purple orb, and was startled to hear a gasp. The man with blue eyes stared at his ex-sphere, then stared at his face.

"You... you're..." The Desian sputtered all humor and grace abandoning him. "You're not dead... I'll be damned you're not dead..." The light flickered, died as the half elf's concentration was totally broke. "You are Lloyd correct? Yes... you must be... But how in Hell..." He shook his head, blue hair fell into his eyes yet he seemed uncaring.

"I'm Lloyd, who are you to know my name."

"Someone, no one." The man sighed, looked at something that was not there for a long moment. "Everything and nothing... A thread of unraveling if you will." The smile was back and it was grim. "And you, you are so much the same... I'm a fool for not seeing it before. Old age I guess." The man barked a dry cynical laugh. "Yes that must be it..."

Red lights flashed above them, the door behind him snapped open and a familiar Desian stepped through, white robed, sandal shoed... The guy from Iselia, the one who attacked the priests!

"Botta what is the meaning of this?"

"Sir! The Chosen's party has entered the compound!"

"Damn... I need to leave, tend to the situation... And Lloyd."

Lloyd looked to the blue haired man, and shivered at the predatory note in the Desian's voice.

"Next time we meet, you're mine."

The door slammed shut behind the fleeing half elf with a steely hiss. But that hiss paled in comparison to the next one he heard. It was drowned out by the hiss of Botta's red sword. Lloyd gulped, took a step back and pointed his remaining sword at the toga clad man. There was another hiss from behind Botta, and two more Deisan's slipped into the room. They were armed with crossbows and swords... Eyes wide Lloyd stepped back. A quick look of the room proved to be a waste of time. No way he could run to the one piece of furniture -the desk- and dive behind it in time. And with that massive Desian in the way there was no chance for Lloyd to fight his way to the door.

"Oh shit..." Lloyd limped back a few more steps, the sight of those bows was making his leg scream in remembered agony.

"How aptly put." Botta grinned. "Let us see if you are as good as the rest of your specie... or if there are any hidden qualities in your blood that will add some challenge to the fight."

There was another hiss, and a grunt, one of the guards who had been leveling his bow at Lloyd spasomed once, blood slid out from his nose, then he fell over. Botta hissed a curse, took a step forward, and whipped his head back. The remaining guard moved with him. Cooly Kratos stepped into the room, he regarded Lloyd, then considered Botta. In his hand was a knife wetted down in red. It dripped the blade, dripped onto the gloved hand, onto the floor, and the mercenary seemed uncaring.

"Torturing children, Isn't that a bit low, even for a Desian?"

"Well well well, a challenge at last."

"Too much for you _boy_."

Kratos stepped farther into the room, a pale Colette and Genis behind him. The hand holding the knife tensed, then with a almost lazy underhand throw the mercenary cast it into the chest of the last archer. The man didn't even cry out, he just pitched forward, dead. Nodding his head Kratos pulled forward half of his wing like cloak and whipped his hand.

Lloyd gaped, as did the last Desian. It was the half elf who composed himself first.

"Impressive, how many knives do you have?" Pulling a small box with a circular button in it's center from his belt the black haired half elf smiled. "As many as I do guards?" Botta took a few steps back, shifted a bit, and continued to slowly angle his retreat in Lloyd's general direction. "Tell me _human_, how much will you risk for the one you so loyally guard? How precious is that golden haired child? As precious as another?" With a grimace Botta lunged for Lloyd, grabbed the young man by his wrist and whipped him around as an impromptu shield. A knife to his throat made Lloyd stop fighting.

Kratos stiffened as did Genis and Colette, they were frozen at the threat.

"How precious human? One child is much like another isn't it, is there even a difference?" The knife drew a line of red. "Tell me..."

"Let him go!" Colette shrieked.

"That's hardly to my benefit little girl."

Genis' lips were moving, his fingers twitching. He had tried to duck behind Kratos to hide what he was doing but Lloyd could see it and if Lloyd had if figured out then it was a matter of time before Botta put it together. The swordsman didn't even think about it, he slammed his foot down on his captor's. Snarling a curse the grip tightened, the knife dug in just a little bit...

"Fireball!"

Three orbs of red streaked in his direction. Lloyd threw himself against his captors grip, staggered free and managed to duck. Fire whizzed over his head, a snarl and sharp gesture on Botta's part summoned up three fireballs of equal size and the collided in the space over Lloyd's sprawled form. Waves of heat rolled out from the impact of two conflicting fire spells and a shower of sparkling embers spewed up from the air and singed the metal roof. Starlets of flame drifted down onto the carpeted floor, filling the inky smoke -more residue from the explosion- with red flecks. Ignoring the light show going on over his head Lloyd crawled forward, to tired and scared to stand.

"Boy, this way!" Kratos barked into the smoke filled room. Lloyd followed the sound of the command over a new series of explosions as Genis and Botta continued to throw screaming bolts of fire at each other. When he finally found them Kratos grabbed his arms, pulled him to his feet, and shoved him at Colette. "Genis, pull back!" The sword seemed to leap into the man's hand. The mercenary glared at the smoke, at the unearthly silence, as if daring the person on the other side to break it. Eventually it was broken, something fell, it clattered weakly against the steel floor and at it's center it flashed red... Standing muzzily in Colette's arms Lloyd could only watch in a weird detached fascination as the red light, the pressed button, winked at them from a wall of smoke. The ceiling above them began to flash in sync with the button, it was then Lloyd realized what was happening.

"He called the guards and bailed, what a damned coward!"

"An intelligent one, there will be another time for talk, let us get out of here."

"I'll... I'll go ahead..." Lloyd tried to disengage Colette's arms from around his shoulders, to stand and walk on his own. He managed well enough to stand, and managed to walk with only a little swaying. Going on ahead was difficult, he was having enough trouble just keeping up with Kratos.

"Easy boy, you're half dead."

"Shut up... I can... keep up..." He ignored how his breath was coming in gasps. "Guards!"

"I see them!"

A silver light seemed to sheath the older man's sword. The man swung his sword, the edge lightly nicked the ground and the silver light build behind the swing like a wave. Then suddenly the light was free of the sword and racing across the earth towards the two guards ahead. One of them fell, downed by the raw power of the attack. Lloyd mimed the elder human's motions, his attack was less focused, less powerful, and it only caused the armored enemy to grunt. Genis' fireball finished the job.

That was their pattern as they fled room to room, projectiles thrown at their foes until they fell. Dead or unconscious it didn't matter anymore. Lloyd couldn't get himself to care about anything at this point, except the burning need to get out, to run, and even that was becoming hard to focus on. Pain stabbed through his leg, his head throbbed in rhythm with his pulse, his arms were both heavy and twitchy, and if he was alone he would have griped and groused and perhaps even given up. He wasn't though, he had to protect Colette and Genis. That's all that was keeping him on his feet.

They paused in a hall while Kratos got his bearings, and it was then he allowed himself to lean against a wall, to wallow in his pain.

"We're ready to move out, can you hold?"

Kratos' voice sounded like it came from far away.

"Yeah... yeah I'm fine... It's not much longer is it?"

"No..." The man gave him a long look, then hissed as he noticed the red on the wall, the red that had seeped through Lloyd's shirt and smeared on the wall.

"Don't..." Lloyd shook his head, looked meaningfully at Colette and Genis. "I can hold a little longer, just don't tell _them_."

"As you will, try not to keel over and die on me."

"I'll try not to." Lloyd grinned at the mercenary's words, though they were probably meant to be serious. "I'll try to do it on a Desian or something."

"Arrange that as best you can." Kratos too grinned, a grim smile a they both shared a bit of morbid humor that no one else would understand. "Raine is guarding the door, with luck the guards will still be scattered looking for the source of the distress signal, or following our path and not yet realizing our goal."

"Let's go then."

Lloyd pushed off from the wall, gripped his remaining sword with a clumsy feeling hand. He was startled to see the mercenary pull out something from his packs and offer him a red healing jell. The scent of apples confirmed to the dazed Lloyd what it was.

"I pay my debts, all of them. You offered me this in the temple for my wounds even though my need was not great, now I return that offer."

"Man, I don't think I can stomach that right now..." The scent was both stirring his hunger and making him feel sick. "Food's not what I want to think about right now..."

"Take only a bite or two, then rub the rest into your side. It'll hold you together till we can get you to Ms. Sage."

"Thanks..." Lloyd did what he was ordered to, and took a swig of water from the older man's water pouch to keep the nausea down. "I owe you one..."

"No, now we are even." The auburn haired man grinned, his dark eyes seemed to catch the gesture and sparkle with that same grim humor. "Although if you are grateful then perhaps I should call you on that debt to be a information source for me, especially concerning that... silver haired one."

"Raine? You want me to help you figure Raine out?" Lloyd laughed, pulled down his shirt to hide the noticeably smaller gash in his side and the fast fading burn marks. "Talk about impossible favors... I still haven't figured her out and I've been her student for like six years now... What'd you want to know?"

"How to get on her good side and stay there." Kratos sighed, the sound was almost as expressive as his "hurmph"s were, from that noise Kratos _must_ be on Raine's bad side. Poor guy he must of been "Rained" on a few times already, that'd explain a lot.

"Ummm not sleep when she's talking maybe?" Lloyd offered. "That I wouldn't know, I mean sheesh I'm her worse student!"

"You are?" Kratos rose an eyebrow. "Despite that she holds you in high regard, and so too does the Chosen, such knowledge of how you got there would be... beneficial to my cause."

"Huh you talk weird you know that... Fine if that makes you happy then sure, I'll help out."

"Lloyd!" Genis yelled, with a groan the swordsman found himself staggering forward. While they'd been resting for a few minuets some of those flying metal things had hummed in.

Kratos considered them, drew his sword and charged, Lloyd was only a few steps behind him.

Steel snapped through the air, slammed into steel padded hides and crunched through to the oil dripping 'flesh' below that padding. Bits of metal went flying as the older man ripped his blade out from the things side, a spray of oil arched through the air as the silver metal monster drifted to the ground hissing sparks. Lloyd wacked impotently with his one sword on the monster's 'face' swatted at the 'nose' until the red light began, then he twisted out of the way and went back to his attempted hacking. It was only by raw stubbornness he beat his opponent down, broke the light spitting nose, shattered the red eye, and limped to his next enemy.

"Lloyd, hard right!"

Having trained with Genis, having fought alongside a time or two with him against the wolves that would attack Iselia's flocks Lloyd was familiar to listening to those commands. He threw himself to the far right, his lack of familiarity with Kratos made him stagger into the older man, make them both stagger. Snarling a curse Kratos moved to shove him off, fire hissed, screamed across the room and a blinding explosion threw both swordsmen to the right.

"Wow..." Colette gapped at the incinerated floating things, as did Genis.

"I never could do that before!" Genis chirped, snapping the orb of his kendama against the staff so that it added a weird applause of sorts.

"Genis... that was so cool!" Lloyd totally forgot his singer eyebrows, his soot covered face and grinned from under his mask of ash. "Do that again!"

"Don't!" Kratos gasped, his eyes wide in horror. "Sweet God don't do that again!" It was only then Lloyd realized he was sitting on the older man and with a meek hop got off of him. "This room amplifies mana, that's why those things were in it, so for all that's holy no more fire spells."

"Aww" Colette protested.

"Man... it was cool though Genis, it really was!"

"I was kind of hoping that it was me getting that good..." Genis seemed really sad for some reason.

"It was!" Lloyd assured him with a smile.

"Enough, we're looking for an exit, not more Desian's to fry." Kratos snarled half dragging them all out of the room.

"But what if we lead the Desians in here and..." Genis started to protest.

The glare the older man shot him made him shut up.

"Alright I'm coming."

There were no other conflicts on their path, they met Raine in the pillar room, and from there ran on weary legs to the exit that Raine had left open.

It was then, in the final hall before making it out that the ruse was unmasked. Six pillars that seemed to hold the room up shivered and in there place were six Desian swordsman. Silhouetted in

the door way was a man in black, a staff in his hand proclaimed his a wizard, from behind came a hiss. They all whirled as Botta came into the room. His impressive red sword in hand

"You'll find things evened out young wizard, unlike that earlier room which possessed, how did you put it mercenary? A mana amplifier? Well this one has a magic damp in it, so this fight shall be much more fairer. Shall we begin?"

There was a hiss as six well trained swordsmen drew their weapons and advanced on the Regeneration group. Six sadistic smiles peeked out from shiny steel helmets as the three humans and two elves were surrounded by what seemed like a small army. A harsh chanting came from the door, outside the room where the wizard stood, in the blistering heat it seemed as if the "damp" thing the leader of the Desian's was talking about wasn't working. For a faint red glow encircled the half elf's hands as he whirled and chanted and made all sorts of wild gestures.

"We are in trouble..." Lloyd muttered, lifting his remaining sword and feeling absolutely naked without it's twin.

"You _just_ noticed?" Genis hissed, lifting his kendama up in a half hearted defense.

"Martel, sweet Goddess, bearer of life and mercy, help us..." Colette unstrapped her throwing rings and held them in unsteady hands.

"We aren't dead yet." Kratos snarled, his eyes scanned the room, focused on the door and the dessert beyond it.

Out of all of them the mercenary was the only one not scared, even Raine was shaking. Lloyd had never thought he'd see Raine get scared, not ever.

"Left right." Genis whispered. "Left dive."

"Got it. Guard you; Colette, Raine. Me bait?"

"Aye." Genis swallowed, he looked sick.

"Whatever happens." Lloyd hissed to the mercenary. "Take care of Colette."

Then with no warning he threw himself at the three men guarding the right half of the room. The chant ended and an ominous pause made the air crackle with it's own energy.

With no regard to his safety Genis threw himself at the guards to the left. Kendama smacked into a lightly armored swordsman, the man grunted, hesitated on his swing and Genis hopped back, fingers drawing an arcane symbol in the air. Instead of three orbs of fire sparks sputtered from the child mage's fingers, bathed his enemies face. Snarling a curse the man ripped off his smoking helmet...

Grabbing the Chosen Kratos threw her to Genis' side, then rushed forward. Steel slammed on steel, rang out, as he caught the slash that would have cut Colette's head from her body. With raw strength the mercenary threw his lighter foe back, a sharp kick to the man's privates took him out of the fight for a moment so he could slip around and block the stab that would have stolen Genis' life.

Raine charged after Lloyd, staff swinging, able to just barely block the over hand swing that would have brained her pupil. The Desian grinned, leered at her, then slammed out with a fist, winded her. She staggered back in pain, bumped into her red clad pupil. He grabbed her, almost threw her across the room. Dazed she staggered, almost tripped on her shorter brother. She caught herself from falling, whipped around to look back in horror.

Lloyd blocked an overhand swing. Shoved the foe back and spun around with his lone sword leading in low. The man grunted, dipped his blade down to catch the blow and was shocked when the young man sunk to his knees part of the way in his spin and whipped his foot around. It wasn't much of a kick, but it's target, the back of his foes knees, was exceptionally vulnerable. With a curse the man tumbled down. Ignoring his pain Lloyd hopped to his feet, brought his sword down as hard as he could on that shiny helmeted head and then stepped over the comatose swordsman and charged next one. Wood clacked, pushed steel aside, and he tried to lash out with a foot. The Desian hopped back, made a slight gesture with one hand and Lloyd shielded his face with his hands as a rain of sparks flew into his face... A roar from the door made him whirl, made all the fighters forget themselves. Molten lava hissed, spilled across the door, slithered into the room, but that was not the attack itself, merely a housing place for it.

Red, long, serpentine, it arched itself under one of the Desian's hands, cooked away the leather gloves, and made the very air around it smoke. Beast, fire snake under one hand, staff in the other the Desian grinned. The fire beast which was about the size of Noishe, looked at them with soulless ember eyes. It's mane, was fire, and from the base of that mane dripped lava, that lava wreathed it in smoking liquid, hissed across the sands, and pooled into the room.

"Pull back." Botta's voice was a whisper, and the guards all but ran for the door.

Snarling a curse Kratos moved to fight his way past Botta the others a step behind him. Lazily Botta slashed at one of Colette's thrown rings, split it twain in one pass. He took a step back, blocked Kratos overhand swing, then with obvious effort managed to force the mercenary's attack to the side. Another step back, another few inches closer to the door, which was the man's one goal. It was their goal as well, the only one way for them to survive. Lloyd slashed with his sword, took the place Kratos had given up when the older human had staggered back from his foes riposte. The boy managed to nail a hit, but his sword lost most of it's strength because the arm and hand that wielded it was wounded. The orb of a kendama whistled through the air, smacked into the large half elf's legs, yet like Lloyd's sword stroke it was ignored, not even provoking a wince. Strangely instead of going for the kill he smashed Lloyd and Genis aside with the massive flat. Shoved them back, nearly into the center of room and Colette and Kratos stepped forward to take the boy's positions. Yet even though he fought and was hit Botta was making his retreat one step at a time, and there was nothing they could do but slow him down.

"The pad, the keyboard!" Raine screamed, pointing. "Break it, someone has to break it, if we do we can trap him with us!"

There was no way he could go back in the melee, fight his way past the massive half elf and break the pad. Lloyd knew that, it was all he could do to stand. He looked to Genis, maybe his friend could cast a spell and... No, Genis shook his head, magic wasn't reliable enough to trust.

Well if spells weren't going to work then there was only one thing left to do.

Lifting his shaking hand Lloyd lined up the ring to the thing that Raine had pointed to and fired.

With a satisfying hiss the black keyboard sizzled, hissed, and then exploded. Botta turned, and only for a second dropped his guard to curse in surprise. That moment was enough, steel flashed due to the angle of magic fueled lights, arched through the air, and there was a rush of red that stained the large half elf's tunic. Croaking another curse, this time directed at the mercenary, Botta sank to his knees, a massive slash ran from his shoulder halfway down his chest.

"Call your man off, make him cancel the spell." Kratos hissed, the red dripping sword said louder then words what was going to happen if the Desian tried to deny him.

"Damn it! Mystin redirect the spell!"

When the half elf got no response Kratos' eyes narrowed, the sword was raised again.

"He can't!" Botta roared, cringed back from the sword and it's awful implications. "He has to release it, he can't cancel it and he's too deep in trance to communicate with!"

"Everyone back away from the door, press against the side walls!" Kratos barked. "Lloyd!" He snapped, seeing the boy wasn't complying, was just staring glassily at the attack that would very soon be coming their way.

"Noishe..." Lloyd mumbled, his eyes empty of all intelligence, his hand absently rubbing it's ex-sphere. "Here boy..."

"Lloyd, get over here!" Raine called out frantically, fighting the hysterical Colette, forcing the young girl to stay despite the fact that she wanted to run to Lloyd's side.

"Noishe..." A chill threaded up the mercenary's spine as Lloyd looked straight ahead but did not see. "Here... Noshy"

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

A/N Some hinted Spoilers in this section look for next set of xxx's if you have not finished the game yet

Fire mana flowed through him, he was that ever changing power and it was him. Interwoven, bound by blood, by soul. Words of a different world, of a human world scratched at his awareness. They were vague, not part of the power that was his due to his mixed blood, and therefore easily ignored. The power in beast form pressed against his mind, only one word would reach him, and that word was not spoken. It would not be long however that word or no the power would be released. He would have no choice but to disobey, the power would have it no other way. Nothing could distract him from the red dance in front of his eyes, the ever flowing, ever burning strand of the weave that he both summoned and was a part of.

Then there came distraction, a growl brushed against his awareness. It was nothing, insignificant. He did not hear that warning growl go off again, did not see the massive green and white form walk up to him. There was a flash of pain, a shuddering wrench, and the weave before him shimmered like crimson mist and whispered back into the skys, the sands, into all the things he had drawn from to make it come to be. He saw through the crimson haze of his own life blood a man with green hair and brown eyes garbed in silver armor. From far away he heard the sound of a sword being sheathed, the soft step of booted feet whispering across sand. Two feet.. No four and the growl of a wolf sounded in his ears. A warrior slammed his blade into the sands to clean of it of it's latest kill as a wolf occupying the same space as the warrior, somehow over lapping it, chewed on a cud of yellow dead grass to rid it's mouth of the taste of blood.

Spitting out a mouthful of red the wolf seemed to dominate the warrior. That green haired man with brown black eyes fell into the black mist that was taking the Desian's vision. The pulsing red twisted into a still black, and those dark eyes from that skull of a wolf regarded him intently. Seemed to follow him down as he went into the final embrace of the shadows.

Xxxx xxx xxx xxx

There was a grunt, a pathetic cry from outside, and a growl. Then the fire beast flickered, vanished, and in it's passing turned sand to glass. They all stood in shock as the horse sized dog padded to the door. It's booted feet crunched in the field of glass, and uncaring it ghosted into the room and went to Lloyd.

"Good dog..." Lloyd whispered, then his eyes rolled back into his head and he fainted onto the green and silver dog.

"Lloyd!" Colette screamed, ran to him with a sob, and helped Noishe support the boy's limp form.

"Lloyd.." Genis whispered. His legs buckled as the whole day seemed to catch up with him and drain him down to nothing.

Raine hesitated for a moment, left her brother and went to the swordsman who first needed her aid, for his wounds were to her eyes very severe.

Steel slid across the floor, Kratos' eye's narrowed, then with a sharp turn caught the blind sword strike that would have killed the youngest member of their party. He turned, regarded Botta with ice sheathed eyes. Without changing expression the mercenary pinned the Desian's blade to the ground, freed his sword up and with a vicious two hand swing brought it back down. Steel slashed through magitechnology enhanced metal with a loud crack. Snarling an oath Botta found his feet, lifted the hilt up in a puny defense.

"We weren't here, the Chosen is not in Triet, nor are we." Kratos whispered. "Those are the terms that you get to live by."

Botta said nothing, stared at the mercenary with hate in his eyes.

"I'll take your silence as a refusal then." Kratos lifted his sword, ignoring the protests of Genis and Colette.

Botta grimaced, then tossed the hilt of his weapon to the side and sank to his knees.

"Get the boy tied down to... to his dog, we need to get out of here."

Kratos sheathed pulled a rag out, whipped his weapon down then tossed it on the Desian's kneeling form. He paid no attention to the rest of them. Did not care to watch as they tied Lloyd down to Noishe with what rope they could find in their packs and try to do so in a way that would not aggravate his injuries farther. He only looked to Botta, watched the Desian like a hawk would a mouse. He only grunted when they called to him, told him when they were leaving.

"Botta... That was your name wasn't it? Next time we meet you're a dead man."

Botta said nothing, but the mercenary could see the other man's muscles tense in suppressed rage.

Then to drive the insult and message home Kratos patted the downed man with the flat of his blade on the cheek.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

A/N Spoilers for the rest of game after this warning...

"Wha- where..." As his vision became un blurred by sleep he came to see a vaguely familiar form. A thick candle stood, the very tip of it lite and just barely dripping wax. By that flickering light he saw a man in black, with dark haunted black eyes, turn to him. A sun tanned face framed by wild untamed hair that obscured one dark eye from sight turned to him. Though gentle the light of the candle did nothing to ease the harshness from that man's face.

"Easy boy." Kratos looked up from the book in his hands, turned and favored Lloyd with his intense scrutiny. "We are in Triet, a days long and hellish journey from where you were held captive. You've been out for a day, and everyone else besides you is fine. Does that answer everything?"

"Oh..."

Lloyd looked down at himself, he looked all dumb wrapped up in white bandages from head to toe. Yet dumb or not, the bandages were cushioning the thousand and one burns that were all over him. With a groan Lloyd tried to move, Kratos' one visible eye narrowed and that small gesture made him freeze.

"If you need something tell me what it is and I will fetch it, I have very strict orders on threat of unspecified torment that you are not to leave that bed." The man's lips twitched into something like a smile. "Your mentor, Ms. Sage, has the soul of a drill sergeant."

A soft scratching at the door made Lloyd tense, and caused all his burns to hurt. He gasped out in pain and the mercenary scowled at him. The mercenary sighed as the scratching occurred again, pulled a strand of auburn hair from his eyes and eased the book down. The man pushed back, and the chair he was sitting on screeched against the stone floor. Indifferent to the grating nosie the mercenary went to the door, leaving table, book, and candle behind. He crossed the floor, across the room's one orange rug, soundlessly. He went to the door, and one hand lingering on his sword he used the free one to pull the door knob.

A familiar head poked out, gazed over the mercenaries shoulder, and that head's owner's lips curled into a smile. Well as much of a smile as Noishe could pull off, considering his silver snout. Kratos was calmly shoved aside by a furry shoulder, and Noishe, still in his pouch boots, padded into the room. Ignoring the other human in the room Noishe walked up to his friend and master, his green tipped tail a wag in obvious joy. The tongue though did not loll out, did not obscure that silver fur under the dog's jaw. From a green mask of sorts Lloyd's dog's brown and all too human eyes gazed at him fondly, they twinkled with happiness like rouge stars. With a quiet bark Noishe walked across the room, went to Lloyd's side, and sat without prompting.

"Noshy..."

Lloyd reached out, ignored the glare form his room mate, and petted his dog's green mane-ed chest. Lloyd would have reached up and scratched the green tuft between those great white rabbit like ears but he could not get his arm to move that much. Noishe rumbled deep in his chest, purred, under Lloyd's weak petting gestures.

"You're not a dog, you're a cat." He accused with a weak grin.

"Whine!" Noishe struck a 'I am not' note into the quiet sound.

"Are too..." Lloyd's eyes were closing, he was so sleepy.

"He appears to be a dog, though the term is rather limited in capturing what he is." Kratos commented form the other side of the room as he closed the door leading to the hall. "Enough children, you both need to sleep. Since getting here Noishe had caught little more then an hours worth of sleep, and you boy are still on the mend. Rest, both of you."

Noishe whined, yawned, then shook himself sharply.

"He doesn't wanna go to sleep..." Lloyd commented with a yawn of his own. "Thinks he has to guard me... he's a good dog..." Lloyd scratched at Noishe's bent head, and those large eyes turned to mere slits as the purring grew louder. "Always been there bein' a guard and a friend..." Lloyd's hand slowed as he scratched the dog's head, his eyes were slipping shut.

"Bark!" Noishe wagged his tail, licked at the still hand, then gently nipped at the sleeve and guided it back to the bed. Spying the blanket that Lloyd had lost when he had spasomed in pain Noishe picked it up with his teeth and turned to Kratos.

"Mumph!"

Reaching out with a trembling hand Kratos took the blanket, considered it for a long time, then let it spill from his limp finger. He turned, intent on leaving the room to think, to clear his mind. Sharp teeth sank into the lower belt that wound around his waist. With a growl Noishe shook his head, nearly made the mercenary lose his balance.

"Let go." Kratos hissed, hand slipping to his sword's hilt. "What the hell do you want with me?"

He was released, and the blanket was again offered.

"No." Kratos looked at the blanket, looked to the dog. "No, not again, never again."

"Grr!" Noishe leapt in front of him, blocked the door with his own body and just stared. With his expressive human eyes.

"Fine." Kratos spat the word like another man would spit an curse.

He snatched the blanket off the floor, cooly threw it over the sleeping Lloyd. He turned to walk away, but a faint movement on Lloyd's part made him turn back. A smile curled the young man's lips, a boyish smile filled with gratitude.

"'anks Noshy..."

Lloyd fell back into full sleep, or perhaps he wasn't even awake at all. All Kratos knew was the steady breathing slowed a little more and the tension of pain that had haunted the boy even in sleep seemed to seep out of him.

"Bark!"

Noishe wagged his tail, and let out a massive yawn that revealed needle sharp teeth. With closed eyes the dog stretched, arched, and gave his tail a lazy swish. He turned, chased his tail at a sedated walk, and on the third lap lay down curled up in a tight green and white ball. The teeth flashed as the dog softly growled to itself, almost seemed to mutter. Muttering done the only motion left for Noishe was the head that flopped back and forth on it's pillow of crossed fore paws. Satisfied the dog closed it's brown black eyes and it's snoring soon joined in with Lloyd's slow, quiet, breathing.

Alone, well more or less alone anyways, the mercenary stood, went for the door. He hesitated, hand wrapped around the nob. After a long moment he released the handle, took a step back and went to his chair. He scooted it closer to the bed, not exactly alongside it so to say, but noticeably closer. With a bit squirming Kratos worked the hilt of his sword around, then gently lay the partially unsheathed blade in his lap.

Ready to be drawn at a moment's notice if need be.

For the rest of the night and well into the beginning of the next day Kratos sat in that chair. He said nothing, only watched Lloyd while he slept, and perhaps that unwavering scrutiny did help the boy sleep. A handful of nightmares seemed to move in to prey on the boy and perhaps it was his presence that made them find other victims. Perhaps not, but even that thought, and the other long thoughts that plagued him that night found no voice through his lips. It seemed for that night he had no voice, only his thoughts and eyes, and a hand. A trembling hand that gently wove through the young man's unruly hair of it's own will it seemed.


	5. preadventure adventure

A/N: More character development, pre-seal of fire activity. I managed to get the poster and nighttime scenes into the story but couldn't fit in the "hole in the wall" scene... but don't fear I will have it mentioned in some way just not at the moment. This chapter focus' on Lloyd (sorry die hard Kratos fans) and it looks like the bulk of them will be focusing on Lloyd from here on out. Don't worry too much, this wont mean I'll be skimping on other characters in future chapters only that Lloyd's perspective is going to be the main one I use. As always lots of added in scenes, add on to existing scenes, and on not-in-game party. Enjoy!

Chapter 5

"No!" Lloyd crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared.

"Yes."

Raine countered, the spoon still in hand, it hovered right in front of his face and was a thousand times more dangerous then any knife, sword, or spell. The reek from the food, if food was even the right word, was making his eyes water. It was green; the "chicken broth" was green. As long as he'd lived, which wasn't long compared to the professor who was an elf and had probably lived to be a thousand or something, chicken broth was yellow, or orange. Not green. He turned his face, and tried not to breath in the chicken, which smelled strongly of green peppers.

"For the love of all that's holy just take the damned medicine!" Kratos flared, he'd been listening and watching this exchange since suns rising and it was almost noon now, he had tried to slip out earlier in this contest of wills. Raine had icily informed him that no one could leave the inn until Lloyd had eaten the soup. No one else though was hounding him to eat it. Genis was totally sympathetic to Lloyd's stubbornness, he knew his sister's cooking, Colette just didn't get it. At least she didn't until she tried a bite, tasted it herself, than ran to the inns privy chambers to get violently ill.

"No." Lloyd glared at the mercenary now. "I will not eat it, it made Colett-" Lloyd closed his mouth as the professor tried to shove the spoon in his open mouth. "Mummph!" Even lips sealed Lloyd was able to say no, or at least radiate it.

"I wish to go out and purchase supplies, to if nothing else re-stock our water stores. I can not do this if I am trapped in the room all day." Kratos hissed in a dangerous tone. "I can not do anything trapped in a room all day by a man who is acting like a baby and refusing to take his medicine."

"That's not medicine." Genis chuckled. "That's Raine's chicken soup!"

"It's... soup..." Kratos lost some of his anger, looked just a little sympathetic. "Lloyd, just... try to eat it."

"Are you making fun of my cooking Mr. Aurion!" Raine snarled, leaping to her feet and upsetting the bowl. She was ignorant of that fact though, and also ignorant of Lloyd's sigh of relief. The look on her face said louder then words, trained fighter or no Kratos was going to be on the brunt of a Raine Storm.

"I'd start running..." Lloyd hissed to the mercenary.

"Uh oh the Professor's really mad now..." Colette scooted away from Kratos, so not to get in the way of Raine's rage filled glare.

Kratos rolled his eyes, indicating that he figured he was safe from Raine's anger. Catching the gesture, remembering his own same gesture the first time he's incurred Raine's wraith, Lloyd chuckled.

"It was nice knowing you Kratos." Genis quipped. "Should we bury you outside or right here in the room?"

Raine turned on him and smacked the small elf firmly for his sarcasm. At that sound Kratos flinched and looked just a tad uncertain of himself. His gloved hand drifted to the hilt of his weapon, and he eyed the elf woman wearily. Raine stomped towards the mercenary, staff in hand. Slowly Genis crept to Lloyd's bedside, five gald in hand.

"Five says he gets away." It was a mere whisper.

"Five says he gets Raine'd" Lloyd countered, placing five of his gald in the elf's hand.

"Winnings after Dinner?"

"Yeah..."

Kratos stood, shoved the chair out behind him, his sword was whistling out of it's sheath. He wasn't fast enough; Raine smacked the sword hand with her staff.

"Spank or kick?"

Lloyd considered Kratos who was rubbing a bruised hand, then considered Raine's stance.

"Spank, ten gald on spank."

"Ten on kick."

Both boys winced as Kratos was Genis smacked for as Raine put it for "foul language". Snarling another profanity Kratos looked like he was going to draw a dagger from his belt. No such luck, a sharp tug on that unruly hair caused the mercenary to stoop forward with a yalp. Spanking soon followed. Yalping in pain Kratos tried to fight, to break free of Raine's grip, but Raine was experienced. She'd done this to Lloyd often enough to know how to keep a swordsman pinned down, and really the mercenary wasn't all that much bigger then Lloyd. Genis covered his eyes, but could not shut out his ears as the sounds continued.

Raine stormed out of the room, leaving a bruised and dazed Kratos on the floor. Colette went to him, helped him to his feet, and then offered him a chair. A long time veteran of Raine's anger Lloyd shooed Colette out of the room and Genis left with her. Both men regarded each other, this time the elder was the one in an uncomfortable position.

"Don't sit." Lloyd suggested. "And don't ever talk to the professor when she's worried about someone, ever... Or that'll happen a ton. I swear every time Genis got sick I learned that ditching class those days was safest."

Kratos only rubbed his behind, looked chagrined, and muttered a few words under his breath.

"Iselian saying number twenty one, "No one lives through a Raine-y season."

"When does... the stinging die down." Kratos muttered his face a bright red.

"An hour, until then don't walk or sit, just stand if you can."

"You're experienced in this?"

"Very..." Lloyd shuddered and for once Kratos did not press him for information, only was content to sit and wallow in his pains. Lloyd shifted in his blankets, he really wanted to get out but with Raine making him eat that horrid food before he had been allowed to leave Lloyd had voted to stay inside. Things had built up to this point, had turned into this confrontation, and Kratos just happened to fall into the cross fire. "I'm sorry, it was my fault, but I couldn't... the food..." He shuddered and Kratos nodded his understanding.

"How does one go about avoiding these flashes of temper?"

"Never let Raine cook... anything, ever. And if she does say you're fasting or something." Lloyd grimaced. "I was just unlucky, I couldn't get away."

"I will remember that... an hour hmm." Kratos winced in pain. "Longest hour in my life by the looks of it."

"Oh yeah, Raine Hours are horrid long hours."

"Do you Iseilan people have any more of these obscure saying that might be helpful to know?"

"Raine Hours, the hours your in pain after being Raine'd. Raine'd what you just went through. Colette-step, to trip. Genis wit, very fast or smart. Noishe'd, when Noishe pounces you. Lloyd moment.. Is... ahh never mind that's not important."

Lloyd moment is?" Kratos' eyes gleamed with curiosity.  
"Ahh when you lose you train of thought, forget..." Kratos favored him with a pitying look. "Hey I don't have the world longest attention span OK!"

The look if nothing else deepened.

"Stop that... Gods you make me feel this big you know that." Lloyd pinched two fingers together.

"As you will..."

"I swear we're going to make some saying about you sometime." Lloyd grumbled into his pillow. "Well now that Raine's not going to be feeding me anymore I guess we could slip out..."

"You are still hurt, and I am as well."

"Aww come on, Raine wont even notice that we're gone!"

"And if she does?"

"We get Raine'd I guess..."

"No," Kratos glared at Lloyd's puppy eyes. "I will not all but sign myself up for another dose of this."

"Fine." Lloyd kicked off the blankets, after being healed and doctored so much he only felt a little weak and sported only a handful of singe marks, he'd be fine for a bit of exploring. "I'll go then, see you when I get back!"

"Wait, if you go and I'm here and she comes in..."

"Yep, you get Raine'd again, see you later Kratos." With an evil grin Lloyd went for the door, and left the helpless mercenary to gap after him. "Have fun with Raine!"

"You boy are dead when you get back, if Raine doesn't kill you_ I_ will."

"Big threat from the guy who can't move!" Lloyd laughed and ran out of the room, leaving a fuming Kratos far behind.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

Lloyd stood in the shadows of the inn, to stay out of the blasting sun. He waited by one of the inn's windows, when a strand of spiky silver hair strolled by, just barely peaking over the window frame, Lloyd gathered his courage and opened his mouth praying that it was not Raine…

"Genis!"

"Lloyd what are y-"

"Shh!" Lloyd glanced around nervously. "Is the Professor near?"

"No, she's in her room making another batch of... It..."

"Great!" Lloyd grinned. "She can feed it to Kratos, come on let's go!"

"Go?"

"I'll meet you at Noishe's stable. Hurry up!"

"Al... alright..."

Lloyd went to his hiding spot. Noishe seemed a little annoyed when his 'master' lightly vaulted over the 'door' of his room and slipped into the shadows like an over melo-dramatic spy. Grinning ear to ear Lloyd reached out, scritched his dog's green tuft of fur and the annoyed look went away. Tail slapping against one of the walls with a wild beat Noishe closed his eyes and lolled his bright red tongue.

"Hey Noshy, up to some adventure?"

"Bark!"

The tail wagged madly, and those dark brown eyes met his own and that huge head bobbed up and down.

"And Genis says you're dumb, heck I bet you're smarter then Raine."

One bright human eye that peaked out from the doggish face closed in a wink.

Footsteps crunched against sand, Lloyd paled, ducked behind his massive dog, and a familiar spiky patch of silver hair peaked up from the stable's door. Grinning from ear to ear Lloyd slipped up as quietly as he could to the door, sparing only one second to turn to Noishe and put his fingers to his lips and toss a wink. When the tentative calls of his name stopped and ten small digits wrapped around the highest plank of wood that served as part of Noishe's door, Lloyd hopped up with a loud 'boo!'. Squeaking Genis fell down and with a good natured chuckled the swordsman pulled his young friend up.

"Hey, you took way too long to get out here and I got bored so..." Lloyd was still grinning, and maybe he deserved to grin at this. It was probably one out of a hundred attempts that he managed to succeed in shocking the normally unflappable composed elf.

"Lloyd!" Genis gasped, than he too began to laugh. "What did you do to Kratos, he was yelling that he was going to kill you and he was being really graphic about how he was going to do it, especially after Raine stormed into your rooms wanting to have a talk with you and give you another batch of soup."

"Did she Raine him?"  
"Yeah, kicked him this time, or rather tried. He wasn't standing for it though and blocked her hit. You should have seen it, it was great!" Genis laughed. "He Raine'd her... nah that doesn't sound right... he 'counter Raine'd' her. He blocked everything she threw at him then told Raine that you had slipped out and that he couldn't stop you because of what condition she had put him in. Now they are both looking for you. You are in so much trouble when you get caught Lloyd."

"Yeah," Lloyd laughed. "Well then I guess I can't get caught huh?"

"Bark!" Noishe rolled his eyes.

"You're going to have to come back sometime, they have to realize that eventually."

"Well then," Lloyd grinned, striking his dad's 'idea' pose. "Since I'm already in so much trouble how 'bout we avoid them for as long as we can?"

"You're only going to make them even madder if you stay away for a long time." Genis pointed out.

"Yeah but I'll get to have some fun before I get in trouble, wanna come along?"

"I should say no, I should turn you in to Raine..." Genis dropped his serious pose and smiled. "But nah, I want to see the market place and local library, if they have one."

"Man... the library... Oh well anything's better then that room... and that soup, after we're done there wanna go to the weapons shop?"

"Sure!" Genis chirped.

"Alright, come on Noishe, no way I'm leaving you behind, I bet you're even more bored then me huh?"

"Bark!"

Noishe couldn't smile, he was a dog after all, but he could get close to it sometimes. Now was one of those times.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"I can't believe this!" Raine fumed, staring at the pen where Noishe had been. The boys had taken there _dog_ with them on their little attempt to run away.

"They are just being immature children." Kratos sighed. "As I've said before they are not up to this, this is only more proof for that argument."

"Mr. Kratos, Professor, what's going on?"

Colette called to them; walking through the open door they could only see the top of her golden head. Kratos sighed, left Noishe's empty stall and went to the rail and looked down. Colette looked up to him, blue eyes wide in concern. Strangely the door was not level with the ground; a pit had been dug into the earth, a decent sized one that one must descend to get to the door. Stairs had been put in to make that easier, and the close walls had prevented any miss steps on Colette's part, or rather they had allowed Colette to catch herself before those missteps had done any damage.

"Chosen, your two friends..."A hot wind stirred his hair, made it fall into his eyes and mask his face, he absently pulled it out of the way so that he could better see her reaction. "They have disappeared."

"What? Did they take Noshy?"

A strange reaction from a girl who was so close to her friends, Kratos frowned, suspicion built in him.

"Yes, they did."

"Oh, then they're fine, they just went out."

"Colette." Raine joined Kratos, looked down on the Chosen who was going back to the inn. At the sound of her name she stopped, turned to her mentor. "Colette did they tell you where they were going?"

"Yep, don't worry they're fine, and Noishe will protect them if anything bad happens!"

"Colette where did they go?"

"I'm sorry professor I can't tell you."

"Why can't you tell us?" Kratos tried a different track, hoping it would gather some information.

"It's a surprise, for the professor's b- umm I mean, I just can't I'm sorry..."

"My birthday," Raine turned a shade of red, her anger forgotten. "Genis and Lloyd are getting something for my birthday?"

"Umm well Genis is... Lloyd's done making yours... oops...I shouldn't have said that!"

"I... don't know whether to be flattered or angry at the fact that they went to the trouble of doing this." Raine muttered to herself. "Well let's go then."

"Go... where Professor?" Colette looked up to her teacher in confusion.

"To find them of course."

"What you really mean." Kratos said, arms crossed over his chest. "Is that you wish to snoop and find out what they are getting you."  
"I mean what I said Mr. Aurion, you can think whatever you want."

"I will do that." Kratos countered, tugging on the edge of one of his shoulder pads. "Why does this Regenerations Journey seem to stray off of it's course every other second?"

"Because we are real people Mr. Aruion, with real dreams, hopes, amusements, and purposes that don't go along with your wishes to get this over with. We don't see this as... as I don't even know what you consider this... but whatever it is in your mind it means much more to us." Raine shifted a bit protectively to Colette and it seemed as if her pupil's gaze carried the same message as Raine's words did. "Now Colette dear, do you want to come along? I almost made you come along without asking."

"I can come really? I wanted to see more of Triet Professor!"

"Well now you can, come on." Raine grinned, taking almost as much amusement from her pupil's enthusiasm as she was in Kratos' discomfiture. "I've heard there is a ribbon merchant of great skill here."

"Oh ribbons!" Colette squeaked, looking like a girl given a promised candy treat. "Can we see the merchant, maybe even buy some ribbons? That'd be fun."

"Ribbons…" Kratos muttered, grimacing. "Well if we want to get this foolishness over with we should head out now."

"You Mr. Aurion don't need to come along." Raine snapped; glaring at the mercenary. Kratos coldly returned the gesture and the air seemed to crackle between them.

"Professor… come on let's go!" Colette gently tugged on her mentor's arm.

"Go on ahead dear; I'll be by in a second."

"Alright."

Raine took a step away from the mercenary, suddenly unnerved by the man. She hated talking to him, his silence and brooding eyes were enough to make her skin crawl. He represented an unknown a mystery, and one that she knew was dangerous. He said nothing, only glared at her, did not complain of the heat, he did not look around them with any interest. It was as if any sense of curiosity and life had been stamped out of him. He could have been made of ice, or had ice in his veins. For all she knew he did.

"Mr. Aurion I would greatly appreciate it if you would discard the attitude. I don't particularly care about your past." _No mater how sad it is. _"I don't care about whatever pains you cling to that make you as you are. What I do care about is that your attitudes may hurt the children under my protection. _My_ protection Mr. Aurion, not yours, you weren't original going to be sent on this little excursion and it was only because Colette said that she liked you that you got to go." She had the pleasure of seeing start in shock. "Keep that in mind Mr. Aurion and all it means, and also know I have the authority to dismiss you from this job with no pay. You were hired to keep Colette safe, not to bully her into doing this trip as fast as she can, not to harass Lloyd, or to snipe at Genis. Do you understand me?"

His eyes narrowed and he nodded.

"Good, because I will not bother to repeat myself." Satisfied Raine turned on her heel and joined Colette, she was surprised to see the mercenary followed a few steps behind.

She was even more surprised when he opened his mouth and spoke to Colette in such a gentle tone; it was as if he had been around children his whole life. As he coolly inquired Colette if she preferred to browse all the shops or only those holding a certain type of merchandise Raine reached out and leaned on a wall to steady herself. This was not expected, and she looked at him expecting an act... and what shook her even more was the fact that it wasn't an act, as far as she could tell. While obviously not enthusiastic about shopping with two woman Kratos seemed to have in ten seconds picked up the basics of being human.

For once in her life she was shocked, dazed, and allowed an enthusiastic Colette to drag her to the first of the stalls.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Lloyd... I hate to say this but I'm getting bored."

"I'm sorry they didn't have a library Genis, but they did have a book shop."

"Yeah I know."

Genis smiled, his pack filled with books and notes. They'd gone to the restaurant to eat a bit and realizing they didn't have enough gald to pay for anything they'd decided to leave. Genis inspired on how Lloyd had gotten him a discount on his new kendama by talking to the blacksmith decided that he wanted to talk to the cook. They'd swap recipes, talked shop, gripped about people who had "no taste for fine food" all the while catering to customers and offering them food with a smile. Seeing the man didn't have help in the back and a large number of customers coming in Lloyd and Genis decided they should follow the dwaren vow about helping others. Genis had squeaked behind the counter, scrambled around the kitchen and worked alongside the chief while Lloyd had run out among the customers getting them seated and passing out orders of food. Noishe had even had a set of trays strapped to him, and the novel of having a tame green wolf bring you your food brought even more people in. They'd worked like that for a few hours, and while hectic it was… well it was fun.

During a long lull they were given a meal and while eating with the chief in his bulbous white had and garb had spent a good hour or so just talking. That had been fun, and out of gratitude they were given that free meal and a decent payment for their services.

"I wonder if after we're done if I should come back, just to visit that man."  
"He was nice." Lloyd admitted, absently draping a hand over Noishe's shoulder. "Are you going to um apprentice with him?"

"No," Genis shook his head. "There's a school, a big school in PalmaCosta, I want to see if I can apply to study there."

"Ap-lie? Sounds like apple…"

"So I can learn there!" Genis flared, than sighed. "I'm sorry Lloyd, even thinking about it kind of makes me scared, it's the best school in the world and…"

"It makes you nervous and you get a little scared because it's the best right, and when your stomachs all knotted you get this sick feeling and it kind of makes you crabby?" Lloyd smiled. "I know the feeling; don't worry about it so much. I know you'll get in." Lloyd suddenly laughed. "Can you see me applying? Shesh I'd get a two or something on the test!"

"Provided you stay awake for the whole test!" Genis teased and Lloyd laughed.

"Oh yeah, paper and desk is the best pillow ever! You should try it sometime!"

"I like to stay in one piece so I'll skip the "Raine'ing"."

"Unlike me huh, since I'm always "Raine'd" on? Speaking of Raine I was thinking, you know that Kratos guy?"

"Who'd forget him?" Genis grimaced. "He's a jerk just like you said. Mr. stone face, Master swordsman and unfriendly jack-a-"

"Wha- Oh shit, it's them!" Raine, Colette, and Kratos strolled out from behind a stall. They hadn't seen them yet, but were headed their way. "There!" Lloyd pointed to an empty stall and grabbing Genis by the seat of his pants threw the young elf over the side and leapt over. Noishe whined, milled about, and Lloyd's frantic hissing of the word "shoo" weren't helping the dog hide himself.

"Oh look Professor Raine, its Noishe!"

"Life flashing before my eyes…" Genis whispered.

"Shh!" Lloyd clapped a hand over his friend's mouth and lay down in the concealing shadows.

"Oh Noshy! We were so worried!" From his position Lloyd could see Noishe's booted paws and a pair of white shoes. "I bet you want to go back to that nice comfy stable don't you?"

"Whine…" Noishe inserted a 'no I don't' note into the sound.

"And where Noishe is Lloyd is never far behind." Came a dry voice that had 'punishment is coming' laced all through it. "Lloyd, we know you're here, come out, right now!"  
Lloyd held his breath as the professor's boots padded into his range of sight. He watched as her boots, and presumably her, drifted from each empty stall and even went up to some empty crates and gave them a firm smack from her staff.

"You know professor maybe Noishe got out on his on and Lloyd and Genis are looking or him."

"Bark, bark, whine!"

"Isn't that cute professor? Noshy's trying to talk!"

"Adorable." Came a cold ice flecked voice that set both boys to shaking. "Where are they dog?"

"Whine?"

"Mr. Aurion, just because he can act intelligent doesn't mean that he is. Lloyd's just taught him to act and respond when people talk, a fancy trick but noting more then that."

"Whine…" Noishe sounded a bit hurt over that.

"You hurt Noshy's feelings professor!"

There was a sigh.

"I'm sorry Noishe will you forgive me?"

"Bark!" A wet sound told Lloyd that Noishe had licked the professor.

Noishe was now, in Lloyd and Genis' minds, the bravest person in all of Sylvarant.

"You... I… don't ever do that again!" Raine screeched.

"Good dog." Kratos' voice was a mere whisper; Lloyd doubted that anyone but Genis and him head it. Clearing his throat the mercenary's boots fell on the edge of Lloyd's vision, little more then a black smudge. "We should head back; I imagine that they'll be at the inn by now, if not then they should be on their way." A hand, pale, gloved in black, calmly draped over the edge of their stall.

Lloyd's heart hammered in his chest, Kratos knew where they were, he knew and all he had to do was to say one word and…

"They better be…" Raine grumbled. "We've been looking for hours."

"And I imagine your shopping was merely a side activity in your diligent search?" The irony in the mercenary's tone made Lloyd wince.

"There's a saying in Iselia, have you heard of the term Raine' Storm before?"  
"Yes, I am acquainted with it." Kratos' voice was calm. "Are you familiar of the term 'disembowelment'?" They all heard his hand as it patted the metal sheath at his side. "If not you will become 'personally' familiar with it if you ever attack me again."

A long pause followed that, a very long span of time in which Lloyd could have sworn his heart stopped. No one in their right mind ever challenged the professor.

"I am not your pupil, I am not a child, do not ever think you have the right to treat me like either one."

Noishe managed to whistle between his teeth, Lloyd knew it was Noishe because besides Lloyd Noishe was the only one who could.

"I... I think I'm going to take Noishe to the inn and go to sleep…" Colette whispered; Colette and Noishe disappeared from Lloyd's limited range of vision.

Lloyd suddenly had his own problem; Genis twitched and started to squirm in his grip. Obviously wanting a piece of Kratos' hide because he had just "diss"ed Raine.

"Did you forget what I told you, about the fact that I can and will terminate your contract if I see it fit?"

"I am well aware of that." The hand over the stall clenched and Lloyd had the dubious pleasure of watching the knuckles pale. "I have treated with you with respect suited to your station and skill base Ms. Sage, but I want you to understand something very clearly. I will not tolerate any disrespect from you nor do I expect you to tolerate any from me. You have been treating me as a child and I thought this the best means to bring you up short." Kratos' hand tightened, and Lloyd could almost hear the wood snap under the mercenary's grip. "If you ever do so again, if you ever dare lay hand on me as a form of discipline and there for demean me I will strike back. Know I will not take any pains to warn you if you look like you are going to step out of line, and I will not use the flat of my blade to defend myself. We are adults Ms. Sage; discussion should be the means of communication not fists, but I that's how you want it I will comply. Do we understand each other?"

"Yes," Raine's voice was filled with suppressed anger. "And understand this, if you don't prove to be as useful as you are boasting by the time we get to the seal of fire you best consider yourself dismissed."

"Pathetic," Kratos spat. "You'd allow such a thing as personal feelings lower the chance of this worlds Regeneration. My God woman who's going to take my place? Lloyd? He's not even an apprentice swordsman and your younger brother… While I'll admit he has some potential he isn't skilled enough to be any use right now."

"If I allowed something like personal feelings to control my feelings Mr. Auion I would dismiss you right now without even giving you a chance. As for Lloyd and my brother I would say put together they would be your equal, at least by my reckoning."

The wood finally snapped under the mercenary's grip, it did so with a terrible sound that set chills running down Lloyd's back.

"This world is more then just our petty anger Ms. Sage. The regeneration of this world is more then ourselves, and should be worth at the very least for us to set aside out issues and work together."

"It is that's why you're getting a chance." Raine sounded scared, and Lloyd didn't blame her.

"Then I won't fail you in that." Kratos broke the wood into smaller pieces, each crunch made Genis shiver so violently that Lloyd started to shake in response. "Our purpose is to see to her safety, to take care of her physically. That's it." Kratos' voice was soft. "To form any other attachments might very well be dangerous…"

"Having emotions and feelings Mr. Aurion is the most dangerous thing of all." Raine countered, her voice losing its anger. "Attachments… as you called it; we need those, just to stay sane."

"You might actually be decent company when you aren't treating the world like it's your classroom and that every other person besides those you are personally acquainted with is a bad student." Kratos noted. "I sincerely hope that I pass this test of yours."

Raine said nothing only walked of. Kratos waited a few moments, then turned and looked in the stall. He picked both boys out of the shadows with expert eyes and made a slight beckoning gesture. They both scrambled from behind the booth, torn with fear, dread, and in anger.

"Get out of here both of you." Kratos snapped. "If you aren't at the inn when she gets back she'll skin you both alive. Cut behind those booths, follow the side street, it should be the fifth building to your right."

Both boys fled.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"I'll never get that guy figured." Lloyd panted to Genis as they sank down on the bed in Lloyd and Kratos' room. "First he yells a Raine, turns it around so she agrees with him, yaps about discipline, and then lets us go and get more or less off the hook."

"He's a jerk Lloyd, he said all those things to Raine that weren't true!" Genis snapped, the effect was dampened due to his panting.

"Was it all lies, really? I mean your sister can be a bit nasty to strangers."

"She has her reasons!" Genis countered.

"Yeah, I'm not taking his side all right? Stop acting like I am… He was a jerk to her; he went totally over the line…" Lloyd closed his eyes. "You know what, I think he kind of deserves something for being that nasty, and I think I have it." Lloyd grinned. "Heh, let's wait to initiate him in the Order for a whole day, starting tomorrow."  
"A whole day? Isn't that a little harsh?" Genis gasped.

"Not as harsh as he was to Raine."

Genis thought it over then grinned.

"I like it!"

"Great, I'll tip off Colette and we'll set up a stash tonight, code S?"

"Yeah, code S, and code T if S doesn't work."

Genis chuckled, should we prompt Raine, you know say that we want…"

"No, no green peppers! I'm not applying for that!"

"Lloyd, applying doesn't go in a sentence like that."

"Whatever. You better go back to your room; I've hidden Raine's present in those packs." Lloyd gestured at the packs, his and Kratos' were so close and all their stuff so mixed up Lloyd couldn't say whose he honestly put the gift in. "And mines hidden at the bottom of my packs with Colette's present."

"I don't wanna move, I'm too tired."

Genis whined, lapsing into what was known as a Lloyd moment. Lloyd smacked his friend with a pillow in a valiant attempt to get him to move. Genis just closed his eyes, after being smack by Raine for years being hit by a pillow was nothing.

Through the open window voices drifted in.

"Oh Noshy your little boot fell of!"

"Whine…"

"I swear if he weren't a dog I'd say does it on purpose."

Genis was already on his feet, running for the door with a speed that fear only enhanced.

And now it comes, the wraith of Raine…

Closing his eyes Lloyd replayed the experiences at the restaurant, at the weapons store, and the quest for the elusive and none existent library. He weighed that against the punishment he was going to receive.

It was worth it he decided with a smile, well worth it.  
Xxx xxx xxx xxx

""Don't move, don't sit, do nothing." That is what you told me if I recall."

"Stop laughing at me!" Lloyd flared, rubbing his rear. "Oww… what'd I ever do?"

"You ran out when you should have spent the day in bed. And do I look like I'm laughing?"

"Yeah, you're laughing with your eyes, this hurts."

"You got off rather lightly considering what I went through."

"Yeah... I guess you can say that." Lloyd grinned at the mercenary, had the pleasure of seeing the man frown in confusion.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Nothin' Ouch, pain…" Lloyd shifted in his seat, and finally ordered himself to work on the small band of metal on his desk. Picking up a small rod with a pointed tip Lloyd scrapped at the band, rolled it over in his hands and considered the runes. All the while Kratos watched him with an open interest.

"Are you sure you know what you are doing? If you make even the slightest error it could be dangerous."

"I know, you've said that like twenty times. First, I know what I'm doing, I've done this since I was old enough to hold one of these steady." Lloyd waved the hand with the caring tool in it. "Second I have these." He pointed to the pages of notes in dwarvish. "Now if you'd mind, this takes concentration…"

Kratos only fell silent but continued to stand and stare for another hour.

"You read dwarvish?" Kratos asked at last, as Lloyd set aside the rod and breathed on the metal to make the residue of his carving come free.

"My dad's a dwarf, so yeah, I do. And they call it _Orishream_, not dwarvish. Calling it dwarvish is an insult, because the word "dwarf" in _Orishream Lungem_ is an insult. It's just tolerated because human's are supposedly not smart enough to know the right form of address."

"You sound like you know more then just the language." Kratos commented, leaning against the wall and continuing his one sided staring contest.

"Oh come on, I told you I was raised by Dirk. You think he'd not teach me the language and customs of his people."

"_His_ people?" Kratos asked eyes intent.  
"I'm a human, not a dwarf. Dad tried to raise me as a dwarf and we both realized that I wasn't a dwarf. I'm not a dwarf in just in how I look, but how I think, how I act. I'm not as… Dad called it '_earthy_' once, as a real dwarf." Lloyd smiled a pained little smile. "'_You got too much fire in you boy, too much wildness in you to be a real dwarf. You're stubborn, but not in the steady way I am, even when you're butting that thick skull against a wall you're still trying to see the other side, to peer around and look for a corner. You ask too many questions; don't leave what is as is. You forge answers out of moonlight and star shine and take them as real and make them real_.'" Lloyd chuckled, picked up the rod, and went back to work.

Kratos said nothing, moved a bit closer, and set his hand on Lloyd's shoulder.

"I'm sorry you had to learn that."

Lloyd blinked, totally shocked by the mercenary's understanding, and open show of sympathy.

"Yeah… well that's how life is I guess. I still love him, he's my Dad, it just hurts sometimes that we aren't… that there is this thing that keeps us separate." Lloyd chuckled, ordered the stinging in his eyes to go somewhere else. "Hey could you pick us up a bite of dinner or something while I work on this? Carving always makes me hungry."

"Of course," Kratos took the hint and let go of Lloyd's shoulder. "Anything you want in particular?"

"Nothing with green peppers or tomatoes, I hate green peppers and tomatoes. Oh, and lots or whatever you get, I'm starved."

"Something with lots of green peppers, and tomatoes, I'll see what I can do."

"Hey, I did not say that!" Lloyd turned, but it was too late, Kratos was out the door. "Man, I don't know if he _thinks _he's being funny or if he misheard me. Must of been the hearing, after all the guys like thirty something? That's pretty old, right? Hearing goes at thirty-ish… Oh well, whatever, if he does Noishe can have my supper."

Scanning his notes Lloyd found the proper description of how the last rune was supposed to go, and got to work on it.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Are you aware of what time it is?" The chief groused, he was not exactly thrilled at having been woken to feed a client. A client who should have been in bed like most of the other people in Triet were.

"I am aware of the hour, yes. Are you aware I am the client who ordered three suit rooms and provided your employer with more money then he has seen in the last few years? If not then allow me to make a complaint about your attitude and you can become pointedly _aware_ of what not having a source of income is like."  
"Fine fine… What did you want?"

Kratos calmly scanned the menu, picked something for himself and Lloyd and told the man. A knock on the door frame made the mercenary start, his hand snapped over the hilt of his sword. The door to the commen room, little more then a basement sporting stove and a few benches and tables creaked, opened. With a yawn Colette slipped into the room, dressed in a robe of palest white.

"'ello Mr. Kratos. Hi Mr. Cook. Are you still making food?"

"Yes." The man physically stopped breathing as he stared at the Chosen One, the child who was the embodiment of his faith. "How may I help you?"

Colette pulled a list from her pocket, than read off the rather long slip of paper.

"Who all are you feeding Chosen? The whole inn?" Kratos was shocked by the quantity of items on her list.

"Nope, just me, Genis, Raine, Noshy, and Lloyd. We're going to have a little party in Noshy's room."

"Oh well that's nice." Kratos seethed, having been thrown out so that Lloyd could yet again slip off.

Only the cook seemed to pick up on his anger, for the man took a few steps away. Colette just smiled at him.

"Isn't it, it was all Genis' idea! He's so smart! You can come to if you want!"

"No, I'd rather not." Kratos managed to suppress his anger and frustration. "I'm not one who takes enjoyment in parties."

"Please?"

He mutely shook his head.

"Alright, but are you sure, what are you going to do?"

"Train I guess…" Kratos shrugged, managed to mask his response to a suspicious stabbing pain that struck him in the chest. "I'll entertain myself. There are probably some books in my pack that I can brush up on."

"Oh…" Colette seemed disappointed, what did she expect him to do, actually join them? She was grossly over optimistic if she thought a please would win him over to spend the evening in foolishness. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Kratos asked. He turned to the chief; his gaze was enough to encourage the man to get to work.  
"For bothering you." Colette sat at a bench and Kratos remained standing despite her mute offer for him to join her. "I do that a lot I guess."

He grimaced, looked to the fire that was cooking their food.

"Don't be Chosen One, it's not a bother."

The fire flickered and he turned to her to see her expression. She didn't believe him. She thought she was a bother to him. It was another rift, another gap, which would keep her from trusting him.

_Whatever god of fate set me up for this has a nasty sense of humor. I'm as suited for this job as a rock is for flying_.

"Are you sure? Won't you get lonely?"

"I'm never lonely Chosen; I'm one of those men who are best suited for spending the bulk of his time alone."

He said nothing more, nor did she, and having nothing to say to each other they both watched with little interest as the chief went on with his work.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

Someone knocked on the door, looking up from his work Lloyd shrugged. Probably just someone realizing they had the wrong room or something. He squinted at the runes he put in the metal, and smiled. Finishing the tail of the symbol for protection Lloyd under scored it with three zig-zag lines as the notes indicated was proper and breathed the last of the shavings away.

"And done!"

The knocking made him hop in surprise and almost drop Raine's key crest. He'd felt kind of weird about working on what had been a Desian's key crest but he'd been able to forget for a little while. Now totally jarred back to reality Lloyd felt a little sick handling it. He set it and his tools on the table and brushed his hands off on the front of his tunic.

"Come in!" Lloyd yelled at the person on the other side.

"Lloyd?" Colette poked her head in. "Hi, you're up too? Great! Everyone else is up and we decided to have a little party, do you want to come?"

"A party!" Lloyd all but popped out of his chair. "Where, when, and who beat me to that idea?"

"Genis." Colette smiled, just happy to see him happy.

"Genis, well then it's not that bad, still I probably should of thought of it first. So's everyone coming?"

"Mr. Kratos said he couldn't, he had something to do."

"Oh, too bad. I better leave him a note telling him I went… nah forget it, let's go!"

"All right!" Colette giggled. "Let's go. Raine and Genis already picked up the food so all we have to do is go to Noishe's room!"

"That's great Colette." Lloyd fumbled with his swords, decided to leave them since after all it was a party and not some really dangerous outing. "give me a second…" Lloyd fought with his sheathes, unhooked them from his belt, and leaned them against the wall. "Alright, ready to go, he I'll race you outside!"

With a squeak Colette dashed for the exit, Lloyd right behind her.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

(Spoilers look for next set of X's if you haven' finished the game)

So he hadn't known… Kratos closed his eyes as he re-entered the room where the two children had been talking only a little while ago. By her words and his actions Lloyd had not known, and he had based his decision on a thought that was not accurate.

Yet another mistake out of a string of so many.

Kratos closed his eyes as bitterness welled up in him.

Yet really what was the point? It wasn't as if he lied to the child, he did not like parties, did not enjoy celebrations of any ilk. They seemed hollow, meaningless. But then so did everything else. He walked across the room, shed his sparrow tail cloak and let it fall to the earth behind him. He didn't quite care to be tidy at the moment, didn't care for anything right now.

He landed on the bed with a drama ill suited him. Normally he'd have eased himself down with care, if nothing else with care for his sword. He didn't care though, so he stared listlessly at the darkness. Moonlight spilled from the room's sole window; fell on the lone wooden blade that had been so carelessly left behind.

_Stupid, stupid boy, what if you are attacked? You don't have any means to defend yourself. _

Not that that… toy would do much good in that regard.

_Pathetic, why should I care, why should I even bother to worry?_

Yet he was, he was worrying, worrying and playing the improbable situations that could occur to disrupt that little party over and over in his head.  
"Damn it!" He rolled over, felt his sword's hilt digging into a very uncomfortable spot and flopped about until he was on his back. His sword was draped over his belly, resting on him, cold unfamiliar. The sword's touch was a poor substitute or the touch of a living hand, of a child eagerly hopping up and down on him demanding attention and love.

"They are dead!" He snarled, closing his eyes, forcing the pain down. "They are dead and nothing will bring them back!"

Yet did the dead look at him in respect? Did the dead occasionally challenge his authority and constantly try his nerves with their gross immaturity?

"They are dead, I can not hope, or even day dream other wise."

Because the implications of that thought being true despite his wishes for it to be false were too horrible to bear.

Laughter drifted out from the window, he put a pillow over his head and tried to drown it out. No such luck his ears were too sharp for that.

"It was not my idea!"

"Oh yes it was… do you think I'd even say 'glue submerged under water would not dissolve' I don't even know what two of those words mean!"

"Lloyd, you should take your studies a little more seriously, am I the only one who finds this even remotely distressing?"

"Wha? Diss-tostin'?"

Colette and Genis' laughter cut through the night air and he heard Raine sigh.

"You are so sophomoric Lloyd, but not exactly in a bad way." Raine chuckled. "Let me guess, you don't know what that means either?"

"Hey, I know what distressing means; I was just making a joke. Sheesh Professor you take me too seriously sometimes."

"And yet you gripe at me when I don't take you seriously enough." Raine countered with a chuckle.

"Oww.. why don't you smack me and just finish me off?"

"Oh alrght…"

"No, ahh, I didn't mean it…help!" There was a loud splash and a bit of sputtering. "Aw man, no fair using Noishe' bowl to soak me!"

"Who made up these rules?"  
"I did…"

"Wrong answer." Raine had adopted her 'teachers' voice. "Genis could you answer the question?"

"Of course Sis. Lloyd when Raine answers 'who made up these rules' you say 'it doesn't mater because if it doesn't go with what you think I will be smacked, so there fore your rules are my rules oh great and powerful teach-' Ouch!"

Lloyd laughed, and after a bit of sloshing around in Noishe's 'water dish' finally fought his way out.

"Sorry Noshy I didn't mean to land there, you want some more water?"

"Ha you _do_ call him Noshy!"

"Do not!"

"Do too! You just did!"

"So what if I do! He doesn't care!"

"Bark!"

"You do? Well sorry Noishe. Hey, no, bad dog!"

There was another splash and another sound of someone struggling out of water.

"I think he wants more water Lloyd." Colette offered cheerfully.

"Ungg… what he wants is a deathbed. You dunk me again Noishe and you wont be getting another supper like tonight's for a long long time."

"Whine!"

"Heh, stomach's where your heart isn't it boy?"

"Growl!"

"Hey, don't give me any attitude, I'm being nice here!"

"Bark!"

"No you aren't!" Genis chirped.

"Am too!"

"Are or are not, I know one thing..." Genis said with an evil note in his voice. "There's a certain picture of you floating around that makes you look like a..."

"Don't you dare!"

"Dare what? Do you have a picture of Lloyd Genis?" Colette asked, from her tone she was quite eager to see that picture.

"Yep, here you go Colette!"

"No, you double crossing-"

"Ahh take it Colette hurry!" There was the rustle of paper, a wail and a thud. "Ow, no fair tackling me! Give it back!"

"No way, it's my picture and... Professor!"

"I want to see this, since you've roused my curiosity." Paper was again rustled. " Oh... oh my..."

"Hee hee looks horrible doesn't it?"

"Well yes, I mean no.. I mean... The artist's skill is certainly in a great deal of doubt isn't it?"

"I think it's accurate!" Genis chirped. "Come on you can see it's him, you can tell it's him, and it's not all that hard so the artist's skill can't be in all that much doubt can it?"

"Well..." Raine hesitated.

"Professor, that does not look like me, I don't look that bad... do I?"

"No." Genis said in a false conciliatory tone. "No you look... worse! Hey ow! Put me down! Ack!"

"Lloyd that's enough." Raine chuckled. "Settle down you two, and Lloyd don't put him down in the traw, no matter how much he deserves it."

"Yes Professor Sage." It came out as a sigh.

Stories and jokes passed between those outside his window for hours. Then as everyone's conversation was punctured by yawns the female elf called for a halt of the festivities.

"Children, I think that's enough for tonight."

"Yes professor." Two voices said in very subdued tones.

"Oh and congratulations on being the 'hot skip' champion Colette."

"I can not believe that you beat the professor Colette!"

The Chosen giggled, and he could almost see her blushing in his mind's eye.

"Goodnight Lloyd, Professor, say goodnight to Genis or me when he wakes up."

"Of course dear, run along."

"Nice night huh Professor?"

"Yes it was… is… Now to bed with you, scoot!"

"Yes Ms. Sage." Lloyd yawned. "Oh yeah, can I come up to your room for a bit, I finished that project you asked me to do."

"Of course, I'll leave the door open so you don't have to knock and wake up Genis."

"Well I'll see you in a bit. Bleh need to change out of wet clothes."

"Yes, it would be bad for you to track water up the stairs someone might slip."

"Yes Auntie Sage…"

"Lloyd! You haven't called me that since you were eight!"

"Well sorry, you just seem like that tonight, always taking care of us and all that. It means a lot, and I guess with that key crest I can kind of return the favor and keep you safe for once you know?" Lloyd yawned. "See you in a bit."

"Goodnight Lloyd."

"Yeah, G'night... Auntie…"

"Oh if I had an eraser!"

Lloyd only chuckled, and sloshed his way back to the inn. Kratos rolled over when the door opened, and Lloyd stopped halfway in taking his shirt off when he realized the older man was up.

"Oh sorry if I woke you!" Lloyd flushed, and then pulled on the shirt. "Umm, I'll go to the bathroom…"

"Don't bother." Kratos could feel the tightness in his throat, but was glad nothing in his tone gave it away. "I was just on my way to the privy's myself, you can change in here without me present." Kratos stood, mock stretched, and went for the door. "Just don't lock the door behind me." And with those parting words left before his heart betrayed him.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Wow, talk about weird" Lloyd shrugged, threw his wet clothes across the room, and fished a towel from his packs. Now dry Lloyd put on his last set of clean clothes and snatching the charm off of the desk went for Raines room.

"Hi." He whispered as he slipped through the door. "How's he doing?"

"Sleeping, as you should be. You didn't have to go through this much trouble…"

"Anything for my favorite Aunt…" Lloyd grinned, and mock ducked as she mock lifted an 'invisible eraser' at him.

"So…." Raine turned the small band of metal over in her hands. "How does this work?"

"Talk to Genis about it in the morning. He can explain it all to you better then I can."

"Didn't he learn from you?"

"Um yeah, why?"

"I see an inconsistency in your logic Mr. Irving." Raine chuckled. "Never mind, you should go to bed."

"On it." Lloyd smiled, "see you in the morning professor."

"Try not to sleep in until noon Lloyd…"

The door was already closed though and she doubted that he had heard her. Now alone Raine's eyes gathered an unnatural light and her face curled into an almost evil smile. "So this is an ex-sphere's key crest… MARVELOUS!" Paper and pencil was pulled out of a small drawer then cackling to herself the teacher began first with sketched then with detailed descriptions… and when that was done she would move onto speculation and… experimentation!

Xxx xxx xxx xxx  
He hopped as a loud cackle rang out behind him. He almost went back up the stairs to see if everything was alright. Curiosity, though, nagged him and he went down the steps. And, though he'd not admit it to himself, that cry behind him sounded a little scary. He'd take snippy mercenaries over evil cackling monsters any day.

He decided to slide down the rail, and after a spectacular fall when the rail ran out decided never to do that again a night. Grinning Lloyd picked him self off the floor and tried to sneak after the mercenary. After the fall it was probably futile, but heck he'd have a bit of fun trying.

He went out the already opened door, and followed the tracks he found in the sand outside. Bending down for a moment and he blinked in surprise. Wow, no cloak that was a first, maybe he wasn't even trailing Kratos after all. Perhaps he should go inside or something... A loud creak from the direction of Noishe's stable made Lloyd steel his resolve to go forward. There was no way he was going to turn back now! Someone might be trying to take Noishe!

He walked through the darkness, not at all daunted by it. With the stars and moon out the dark wasn't all that scary after all… He walked as fast as he could to Noishe's stable, and was shocked to see the mercenary out there holding the gate open. He took another step forward, word of greeting on his lips. He nearly lost his tounge with what happened next.

In less then an eye blink Kratos had spun about, drawn his sword, and brought it around at a full swing.

"Ah!" Lloyd staggered back, and even as he fell the sword followed him, pressed against his throat. Drew a line of red... "Kratos, it's me!"

Sense came to those horrible empty eyes, sense and shame. It radiated off the man in waves Lloyd could almost see.

"I apologize if I startled you." Kratos sheathed his sword, offered a hand. It was only then that Lloyd realized he was on the ground, crab walk position, and had actually scrambled back a bit in his terror.

"Startled?" Lloyd managed to croak out. "Startled!" He took the hand and allowed the man to pull him up. "Sweet Gods _startled_ is not the word."

"I apologize, but you should not have come up behind me." Kratos still radiated that near suffocating sense of shame and it took the bite out of his words. "Never stand behind me, ever. I have a very nasty set of instincts, you wouldn't be the first I've hurt because of them."

"I'll keep that in mind. Gods you could have killed me!"

"You wouldn't be the first person I killed." Kratos sighed, than turned to Noishe who took a step out of his pen and regarded them both with a silly smile on his dog face.

"Wow, Noishe seems happy!" Lloyd rubbed at his throat, tried to ignore the wetness under his hand. "Don't you even think about it Noishe!"  
Noishe wiggled his rear and that wiggle traveled up his frame and to his ears.

"Oh man… Isn't once enough?"

"I don't understand." Kratos admitted, looking to the two of them in confusion.

"You will in a se-"

Noishe pounced, pinned Lloyd, and decided that a licking was in order.

"No, don't! Damn it you're too big to keep doing this to me, you're going to break my bones or something!"

"Woof!"

"Ung…" Lloyd rolled his face away from Noishe. "Stupid dog, let go, get off!"

"Bark!" Noishe decided to lie down.

"Can't breathe… help m…e…"

"Noishe, _Auust_!"

Noishe hopped off of Lloyd with a whine.

"Whoa," Lloyd wheezed. "How'd you do that?"

"I have a way with animals." Kratos sighed, taking hold of Noishe's skull. "_Lloyden deci auust Noishe auust_!"

"Whine…" Noishe scuffed a paw across the ground.

"Something tells me you aren't saying bad dog bad…" Lloyd chuckled, found his feet.

"I am saying the equivalent." Kratos let go of Noishe's head and the glare he gave made Noishe slink back to his pen. The mercenary firmly closed the door behind the dog and Noishe made a face at the mercenary once the man's back was turned. Lloyd coughed, fought down laughter.

"Something humorous?"

Noishe tried to mime Kratos talking. He closing one eye and squinting up the other he soundlessly opened and closed his mouth.

"Ah no... nothing..."

Kratos rose an eyebrow, as if to say he knew Lloyd was lying, when Noishe scrunched up his face in an attempt to do the same Lloyd had to look away. The safest place was to look up, so look up he did.

"Man the stars are awful bright here, aren't they?"

"Yes, I guess they would seem that way." Kratos turned his gaze to the heavens. Shards of silver winked down at them from the jet black sky. "In the dessert the sky seems more... prominent then the earth."

"So what you're saying is the heat burns away everything that'd normally catch your attention and makes you pay more attention to the sky?"

"Something like that." Kratos closed his eyes but kept his face tilted to the heavens.

"I'd never of guessed." Lloyd said with a chuckle.

Kratos turned to him, rose the eyebrow that Lloyd could see under his mess of hair. Not that Lloyd had any right to say anything, his hair was pretty messy too. What was the saying 'pot calling kettle'? Whatever it was something like that. Rubbing at his own brown hair Lloyd tried to put his thoughts together because what he had to say well... it felt important to say it right.

"We're... like I guess, at lease when it comes to that." Lloyd waved a hand at the sky. "We both see it as something special, not something that everyone else seems to take as 'it's there, it's pretty'."

"The stars have some importance to you?" Kratos asked, his dark eyes felt like they were boring there way into Lloyd.

"Yeah, they do." The youth walked past the black clad mercenary and leaned over the rail on the stall. Noishe padded over to him, gave him a long look, and his tongue lolled out. "Don't even think about it."

"Whine?" Noishe's eyes were almost twice there normal size.

"You do and I'll give you a flea bath."

"Bark!" Noishe's eyes widened in fear and the tongue slipped back where it belonged.

"You two seem... close." Kratos noted, Lloyd blinked in surprise. Somehow the man was just _there_ leaning on the rail a few feet away. Lloyd hadn't even heard the guy walk over. That was really creepy how someone could just be that quiet.

"Me and Noishe have been friends since day one, isn't that right!"

"Bark!" The tail wagged happily and it went even faster when Lloyd reached out and gave his dog's head a scritch.

"Noishe and I..." Kratos muttered.

"Huh?"

"Never mind..." Kratos sighed. "It is not important." Kratos looked at Noishe with a frown but something told Lloyd that he wasn't frowning at Noishe so much as the space in front of Noishe.

"You have a pet, a dog?"

"Once a while back."

"Whine!" Noishe stretched his neck and head to sniff at Kratos' hand.

"He wants you to pet him." Lloyd informed the mercenary.

"I doubt that..."

"Whine!" Noishe slicked back his ears and widened his eyes. While he could not get his lower lip to tremble he did manage to look pathetic enough without that effect.

"Uh oh... he's going to start howling in a minute. Pet him, I swear he wont bite."

Kratos hesitated and Noishe's whimper was the most pathetic sound Lloyd had ever heard. Finally, seeing the man wasn't going to comply the Iselian snatched the Kratos' hand and put it in Noishe's reach. Pressing himself against the low wall Noishe dropped his silver and green head and wormed it under the mercenary's limp, gloved, hand.

"Now flex your fingers, like this..."

Lloyd mimed scratching Noishe then gave the mercenary a long look. As the older man complied Lloyd shook his head and set the ribbons that dangled from his collar to swish behind him. He said without words that he was thinking that the mercenary was being awful thick. Satisfied that Kratos was well on his way to making Noishe happy Lloyd reached out and gave his huge dog a pat on the shoulder. Noishe's brown eyes flicked in Lloyd's direction, and mutely conveyed a world of gratitude, then those dark eyes slid shut in bliss. A strange sound, more suited to another animal came from the dog's throat.

"What in the higher power's name?"

"He's purring..." Lloyd chuckled. "Man I am gunna turn as green as he is if this keeps up. He only purrs when he's _really_ happy, it's not the _I've missed you while you've been gone all day_ or the _slightly happy_ mood... He's only purred at me when I was gone for a week and he found me, or when I've gotten better after being sick. He's purred for Colette once, and purred at Genis when they tricked me into rolling in... Nah that wasn't purring, that was just him being evil." Noishe lolled his tongue out, his eyes saying that if only he could tell stories.

"This is... strange..." The mercenary managed, his fingers lost in the green mane that flowed down Noishe's shoulders and thinned out when it ran into the dog's back.

"He's a strange dog." Lloyd admitted with a gin, that he would have sworn Noishe returned. "Smart as heck, sneaky too." Lloyd chuckled. "Would you believe he once tried to actually cook something over the stove one day? He had flour all over him and something I swear was muffins in a pan. Dad wont believe me but I swear Noishe's tried to cook at least three times since I've been around. Of course every time he does I get blamed for it..." Lloyd reached out, swatted his dog's silver furred side. "You've gotten me into a ton of trouble you know that?"

Noishe's response was a wink.

"Of course you do, and I bet you're going to bet me into even more. Just remember, I have lots and lots of soap in my packs, so don't get too evil on me."

"Whine!" Noishe's eyes widened in terror.

"Well..." Lloyd yawned, tried to ignore how Kratos was just _staring_ at him. "I'm turning in."

"Lloyd..." The elder swordsman caught his gaze and with just the force of his presence made Lloyd not look away. "I am curious... what training did you receive for your swords craft?"

"I'm that good?"

"No," The smirk fell off of Lloyd's face at Kratos' blunt response. "Your style is grossly unrefined and totally unorthodox. I am just curious, have you any training?"

"Hey what d'ya mean unrefined and unorthodox! I can hold my own in a fight!" All the guy had to do was look at him, meet his gaze and the Iselian swordsman felt like a little kid arguing something futile with an all knowing parent. "Alright maybe I'm not as good as you but I'm not that bad!"

Those brown eyes made him squirm in discomfort.

"Forget I asked." The mercenary brushed past him, paused in the dark street. His clothes made a sliver of dark lost in the greater dark. "I am going for a walk, just leave the door open I will be by in a bit."

"Yeah... Maybe I wont!" Lloyd called out, it was childish but it made him feel just a bit better. There was no response, Kratos was just gone. "Man what a weirdo... You like some really odd people Noshy."

"Grr!"

"Hey, what's your problem, come on he's a little weird isn't he? The cloak if nothing else, what kind of person wears a cloak?" Noishe stretched his neck out and nipped one of Lloyd's neck ribbons that had drifted into the stable. "Hey, I am not weird because I like these!"

Noishe only gave him a long look that said otherwise.

"Shut it dog, Dad put them on, they stay on."

"Whine."

"Yeah yeah whatever... Why the heck does he think he's all that cuz he's better at swords them me. It's not like we had sword-masters under every bush back in Iselia." Lloyd sighed, leaned into the rail and told himself the truth. Compared to the mercenary he was a novice, a little kid trailing behind an adult insisting he was better. "Damn it... it's not fair!" Leaning into his crossed arms Lloyd muttered a few more expletives. "Why does he have to be better then me and make me feel like an ant while he's doing it?" Noishe only licked Lloyd's hand in an attempt to bring some comfort. The boy smiled, reached out and gave Noishe's head a rough shake. "Even if there was someone to train with it's not like I'd be at his skill anytime soon. Learning something takes time." Lloyd closed his eyes, remembered just how long it took him to get where he was with carving, with blacksmith-ing. It was a sobering thought that he wasn't the best swordsman, he'd been the best in Iselia and it was a bit scary to know that outside of Iselia he wasn't the best.

It made him want to go home, to go somewhere safe where he knew what he was and what he was doing. He suddenly did want to go home, he wanted to be where he knew what was going on, where the whole world didn't depend on how good he was at protecting Colette. He wanted to go back to the time when Colette was _just_ Colette and didn't have to hold the world up on her own.

Yet was there ever a time when that hadn't been the case?

In his head, yeah, there had been a time when he hadn't known, and when he had learned he'd clung to the old idea. Even though everyone else kept telling him over and over that she was the Chosen. It meant nothing to him, he wasn't religious, didn't even believe in Martel. And yet look how it was changing everything, that belief in Martel, look how it just ripped Colette from her home and had everyone making her into this Chosen person.

If it wasn't fair to him what was it to Colette? To Genis? To Raine?

"I don't like this." He announced to Noishe. "This Chosen thing, I don't like it... It's not right... Am I wrong Noishe, to not like it I mean? I know it's wrong to say that to Colette and all... But is it wrong to think it?"

Noishe only shook his head and gave him a long look like he wanted so bad to tell him something but couldn't.

"Well at least I got you to talk to about it. I'm thinkin' way too much, I'm heading in, you need anything?"

The horse sized dog shook his head.

"Why's it you act all smart around me but act all dumb around everyone else?"

That only got him a wink and a toothy grin.

"Weirdo." Lloyd locked Noishe's huge head with an arm and roughed up the tuft of fur that was between those huge ears with the other. Releasing his dog Lloyd laughed at the expression on Noishe's face. "You so know I'm right!"

"Bark!"

"Yeah, whatever... see you in the morning."

With a parting scritch Lloyd left his dog and wandered back to his room. It was all he could do to stagger to the bed and let his legs buckle. Tonight, he decided before sleep took him, had been nuts. A little bit of everything had happened to him it seemed. As he closed his eyes his last thought was of how that was not so bad a thing.


	6. A Child's Game

To the readers,

A silly/serious chapter for this fic, poor Kratos he seems to be the brunt of everyone's ill humor. A club, Guardian and the dreaded "ruin" mode all come to pass. The fire temple is probably going to be a whole chapter all by itself. Short chapter (under 30 pages) and I guess you can tell who Lloyd's going to have high friendship points with at it's conclusion. This is a kind of dribble chapter as I am still nerving myself for the massive amount of fighting scenes in the Fire Temple. Sorry if everyone's a tad OC, I'm trying to stay loyal to DES, and the game all at the same time and I'm finding it a bit difficult to do that.

Kasan

FairyV: Raine's violent streak kind of gets to me too, there probably wont be as much of it in this fic as there should be if I wanted to stay really close to her "character" as it is it'll tapper off later on in the fic.

FallenStarAngel: Less Raine, less Noishe in this chapter of the fic and more Kratos and Genis (trying to maintain some balance here by alternating character focus every few chapters) Hope you like this chapter

Gamecubegirl1: "Massive" is not the word. My notes stretch from the scenes in Iselia all the way to the Tower first visit and the notes over a hundred pages. If I can I will go through the game, if not I'll try to cut off at the tower, but if you think DES was long this fic's going to be a heck of a lot longer. I probably will cut this fic into "Seal books" Begining to Izoold would be the "book of fire" I don't know how I'm going to cut this all up yet, when I work on it expect some changes in my profile though.

MoonCannon: Thaks! I'll try!

Chapter 6

"Something wrong Kratos?" Genis teased his eyes wide with mirth. The mercenary said nothing, only clutched at his stomach and staggered to the men's privy to get violently ill. He staggered out of the dark closet like room ten minuets latter, to see Genis tying up the last strings to his packs. The small boy looked over Noishe's huge shoulder as he worked the packs on the dog's shoulder strap, and it was that wide grin that told the mercenary that something was amiss. He had been approached, by all people, Colette in the morning telling him that there was this club he was going to be initiated into, and that I would spare him a lot of pain if he were to just to agree to the rules. He had scoffed; he would not play along with a child's game, not even to appease the Chosen.  
The pitying look she had cast him, mingled with disappointment had made him worry. His main worry though had been that this was yet another wedge he had driven between himself and his client. Now his thoughts were much changed after breakfast.

He worried that this was all planned, that Raine cooking breakfast had been planed. How convenient for the children to suddenly praise Raine's cooking, a few words of encouragement, some under cooked meat and green peppers later, and he was fighting down a case of stomach flu. And none of the others were sick. Colette had oh so conveniently recalled a ritual that made her have to fast for the daylight hours, Genis had made himself toast before Raine had gotten up so he only had to stomach only half a serving. Kratos… Kratos had no way out, and so he had to eat the food with Raine in eager attendance. Lloyd had slept through the whole event, and since he only had crawled out of bed till noon he missed breakfast and lunch. While running around the room in a mad attempt to get packed the boy made himself a sandwich and wolfed it down, and again Kratos and Genis were the only ones to have Raine's cooking inflicted on them. Yet halfway though the meal Noishe had strolled in and taken a large bite out of the stuff on Genis' plate, then padded out and by the sounds of it had spit it out and buried it. Genis pleaded being full and had strolled off, and again only Kratos wound up eating the meal and with Raine watching him like a hawk he could not avoid eating it. 

And to add pain onto injury not praising the woman's cooking got immediate praise out of the children, for every hint of dissatisfaction Colette would say she wished she could eat, and Genis would yap about how good the food was.

Coincidence, after lunch he knew that it wasn't, and he was starting to regret dismissing Colette's warning. So while they traveled, leaving Triet behind them, Genis leading this time, Kratos had fallen behind and conveniently disappeared for a few moments behind a clump of short squat cacti. After his last batch of sickness passed he looked up, looked at the food that his body had so wisely rejected, and realized it looked better now then it had on the plate. He grimaced, spat out a few curses and was surprised to hear someone approach.

"Hey, you alright?"

It was Lloyd, he had been the least active in his torment. Had been showing him a kind of backward sympathy, sneaking the mercenary condiments to cover the taste of the food, had conveniently tripped and knocked the mercenaries bowl of seconds to the floor so that Kratos did not have twice as much 'food' to bring up latter on. But still the boy had laughed at him, had teased him along with Genis.

All for not agreeing to some stupid game, Kratos closed his eyes, moved to find his feet, and was a little surprised that Lloyd offered him his hand. He took that hand, allowed the child to pull him to his feet.

"Here." 

Surprised by the continued generosity Kratos took the handkerchief and whipped off all traces of his sickness off of his face.  
"Ew you think I want it back now? Keep it."

"I never knew…" The mercenary picked his words carefully, his mood was very precarious. He was torn between being very grateful for Lloyd covert sympathy and help and just as equally furious that the boy would take part in this foolishness. "I never thought that a mere child's game could be so cruel."

"Hey, you started it! And Colette told you that it wasn't a game, we were being serious and you didn't trust that we were taking it seriously. Well same to you, we don't know where you stand with Colette, but as her friends were gunna make sure you are alright for this job. Think of it as a test like the one Raine's got you under." Lloyd looked at him with a shocking seriousness, for once there was no smile on the boy's face. He carried himself with a somberness more suited to a man going to a funeral. "And I wouldn't take it lightly, the meals were a hint of what it's going to be like if you don't pass."

"Is that a threat?" Kratos stared at the boy his own expression a neutral mask that hid an inner turmoil of emotions that he did not want Lloyd to notice.

"No it's the truth."

Kratos blinked, and for the first time took Lloyd very seriously. He dropped what Lloyd probably dubbed his superior attitude and nodded his head to acknowledge the point and his faint hint of respect for the young man. Yes, he was not a boy but a young man, and despite the rashness, the playfulness, he needed to keep that in mind. He had been slipping, had been treating them all like helpless children. Or more accurately he had been treating them talking baggage that was conveniently able to keep pace with him. 

"Besides not being poisoned on a regular basis what will entry in this… 'club' get me."

"I can't tell you, part of the oath."

Kratos rose an eyebrow.

"You can at least tell me who's in charge can't you?"

"No I can't." Lloyd grinned at him, obviously liking having a bit of information that the know-it-all "I'm soo much smarter then you" mercenary didn't have. Kratos didn't need to be able to read minds to know Lloyd's thoughts on him, all he had to do was be able to read sleeves for the boy kept everything there. "Sorry." 

Insincerity in that last word made Kratos snort, and he adjusted his cloak.

"We best move on, the others will get concerned if we are missed."

"You gunna be able to keep up?"

"I am fine." Kratos stared at Lloyd, considered correcting the young man's appalling word choice and merely bit his tongue. "Though if I have to eat another batch of Ms. Sage's cooking I may not be. And that would lower my efficiency for this job."

That was a hint, a hint that Lloyd best talk to their little leader and tell them to stop these attempts to tlinepoison him.

"Yeah," Lloyd's toothy grin did not comfort the mercenary. "Another batch of Raine's cooking would be bad for you, huh?"

"I am serious about this." Kratos snapped, "Do not underestimate me when I am being serious or you will be as guilty of what I have done to you and your friends. And if I dub you guilty I might just ram a bowlful of Raine's porridge down your throat to teach you some humility."

"Ha! You and what army?" Lloyd teased, and the mercenary found himself grinning back, a small guarded grin. They both began to walk back to the rest of their company at a slow easy pace that allowed for easy chatter.

"I do not need an army to deal with you."

"Oh yeah I bet I could so kick your…"

"Lloyd Irving!" Raine shrilled from the top of a dune some way off. "Get over here right now!" 

"Man you got me in trouble!" Lloyd gripped; his ribbons that hung around his neck like shredded bits of a cloak seemed to droop as he shook his head. He smiled though, waved at his mentor and seeing that they were coming but still were not putting any speed in it the woman tapped her foot. Even from their distance Kratos could read the anger in the elf teacher, could hear her grumbles of uncomfortably specific tortures she was going to inflict on her pupil.

"I believe you are going to be Raine'd when you catch up to your teacher Lloyd."

"Nothing new, happens all the time, or you so old that you forgot I said that?"

"There is a saying that one is a glutton for punishment, if ever that was the case with someone I knew it would be you boy. And I am only five years your senior, I am not that old… yet."

"Hurmph." Kratos chuckled at the bad impersonation of himself and he watched with amusement as Lloyd crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared at him. "How old you think I am, sheesh, to be five years younger then you I'd have to be like thirty something."

Kratos felt a wrench in the vicinity of his chest; he had had this conversation with someone else a long time ago. Lloyd flushed, obviously thinking he'd gone and hurt Kratos' feelings, and moved to awkwardly correct the situation.

"Totally out a line there, sorry…" Lloyd coughed. They had reached the base of the hill and Raine's grumbled threats were getting ominously louder. "I'm sixteen so if you were five years older then that…"  
"I stand corrected, I am seen years your senior." Kratos sighed, shoved that old pain down and ordered himself to focus on the here and now. "But you are only sixteen, you look older…"

"He doesn't act it!" Raine growled, they had a last strolled into her hearing range. Colette, and Genis, happily perched on Noishe had not minded the wait but the professor radiated her anger. She did not want any delays, and if she thought it would make them go faster she would have put them all on Lloyd's massive pet and pushed them all to the temple. "Come on we are going to be late!"

"Late, professor temples don't move or anything how can- Ow!" Lloyd rubbed at his head where the slender woman had smacked him with a hand.

"That's not important, come on!" Then she all but dragged the young man down the hill, and saw the reason for the woman's excitement. The stones of the temple poked out from beyond the next massive hill. Kratos grimaced, stared at the sandy mound and the few pillars that were a hint of what was to come. The bricks were black, and on closer observation he would wager they were covered in soot. A warning, and a good one, that they were all going to enter the temple of fire, armed with steel and wood they were going to go through a mess of traps, demons, all centered around flame.

He sighed, only to himself, for Lloyd was being dragged by an excited Raine and the prancing Noishe not far behind her were already climbing the last dune. He stood, on the brink he stood and hesitated. They were going to their deaths, if not at this temple then the next, or the one after that... Eventually they would all die at the hands of the demons in one of the temples, it was only a matter of knowing that the odds always seemed to catch up with those one the regeneration journey.

Eight regeneration attempts ago, eight centuries ago, one woman had made it through all the trials and saved the world. It was so long ago, so much time had passed, and due to that time he could almost feel the world dying under his feet. He could see that death in the pinched faces of the people; could see it in the rivers that ran more often then not with dust rather then the pulse of life. And what pulse was there was sluggish and slow. The world was dying and they were asking a child, no a group of children, to save it.

His stomach writhed and that motion had nothing to do with the food he had been forced to eat earlier today. His sickness had nothing to do with food at all.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"And low from the ashes of the phoenix shall first step to the light be found." Colette quoted as she read some script in angelic. She stood in the shadows cast by a wall and a half. It had once been a building, Raine assured them that this had once been a city. All the stones were black, and brushing up against them made that black spread. The whole city was covered in soot, it was an empty city of partial walls and broken walk ways. They crossed across a broken cobblestone road and at every house Raine would make this scary squeaky noise and dash inside.

Raine had had her reading bits and pieces of the ruins that had writing on them for almost an hour. The three males had gathered some distance away from Raine who was skipping, skipping from pillar to pillar dragging a very scared Colette behind her. Soon though Raine's happiness, once Colette realized it was happiness, infected her. Now two pairs of boots were skipping and chattering about angelic language.

"You didn't warn us about this wizard…" Kratos growled, staring at the woman with something close to fear on his face.

"I was trying to keep it quiet." Genis bowed his head, sighed. "I asked her to act normal and she said she would."

"If this is normal then Kratos is the most cheerful man in Sylvarant." Lloyd whispered, scared to catch Raine's attention and be the victim of a grill history lesson. "Man, poor Noishe, I wanna save him but..." 

Noishe trailed after the girls ears slicked back. He had been so happy when Raine had pulled off their supplies off of his back, and that happiness had fast faded when the basket had been tied to him. He now was carrying all of Raine's archaeological tools, notes, and writing utensils plus a handful of vase shards, rock, and other weird things and was clearly getting tired.

"Whiiine!" Noishe turned to Lloyd, his face saying 'save me' unfortunately the sound made Raine look at him.

"Kratos, Genis, kill me now before she does… please?"

"Lloyd, could you come here please?"

"Guys? Guys?"

A quick look over his shoulder showed the other men to be slinking off, looking for safer patches of shade to hide in.

"What a bunch of 'good' friends you guys are!" Lloyd called to them, then with a sigh tried to smile. "Yeah professor, I'm coming…"

Genis snickered, ignored the mercenary and had a good laugh over Lloyd's misfortune. Now he was holding a basket that Noishe had been carrying. Lloyd's dog had tried to slip off but another basket had been strapped to him and he was now being loaded down again.

Lloyd turned to them, his glare said louder then words that they'd be joining him soon. And in less then a moment Noishe turned to Genis and made the same pathetic whine that had caught Raine's attention the first time. Raine turned and Genis swallowed hard.

"Genis, could you help us out?"

"You're so next." Genis warned the mercenary as he joined Raine with a phony grin on his face.

Soon he was holding a small pan used for cooking and it was brimming with bits of pottery. He held it up with two hands over his head, and Raine would drift over to him with a dreamy look on her face and drop a few more shards into it. Lloyd trailed after his teacher gasping and panting, a basket large enough to chuck two Genis' in it in his hands.

"And how," Kratos asked as he abandoned the sanctuary of the shadows to catch Raine's attention. "How does this get us to the seal?"  
\pard line "Its research Mr. Aurion, we should always take time to conduct research so that we have an idea what's ahead." Raine then cocked her head to the side, her eyes measuring Kratos' frame.

Kratos looked a bit scared; he went for his sword and took a step back obviously thinking that he was going to be Raine'd. He blinked at the basket that was thrust into his hands, stared at it, then at the teacher.

"You are out of your mind if you think for one second I am going to…"

Raine merely smiled at him and dropped a large rock with runes on it in the mercenary's basket. 

"I'll trade you." Lloyd gasped to Genis.

"It is bigger then me! I can't lift it!"

"Kratos?" Lloyd shot the man a puppy eye look that Noishe used on him all the time. 

"No."

"Noi… Never mind."

Noishe glared at him, and then padded after the two women with a grimace on his fury face. And so they entered the remains of the city of fire, carrying half of it with them.

"Professor!" Lloyd called out; his earlier pleas for a break had gone unheeded so he was going to try a different idea. He shot the two other guys an apologetic look then gathered his courage. "I have a question."

"Yes Lloyd!" Raine beamed at him, the physical embodiment of good will and cheer.

"What made this place so… You know ash covered?"

"Oh what a good question I'm so proud of you Lloyd for showing some intellectual curiosity! Colette, sweetie!" Raine chased after Colette a smile on her face. "We're going to be having a lesson."

"Lloyd… if you ever get an idea like this again…" Genis took a deep breath. "I'm going to fireball you!"

"I just want to stop, just for a tiny bit, aren't you guys tired?"  
"Yes, but you've never been lessoned by Raine when she's like this! It's scary, it scares me, I still have nightmares and I only came with her to a ruin once when I was six!"

"Did I do something bad?" Lloyd looked pathetically at his best friend.

"Very very bad." Genis snapped, his eyes wide in terror. "It's on level to that story where Ayborost opened the chest that held all the world's evils and let them all out!"

"Nothing can be that bad.s24 " 

"You'll see…." Genis moaned, set the pan aside. "I on the other hand am going to be prepared." Genis pulled out his backs with it's handful of apple jells.

"At this rate we are never going to get to the temple!" The mercenary fumed, setting aside the over flowing basket filled with rocks that sported squiggles that Colette claimed were angelic writing.

"I warned you guys, Raine and Ruins equal bad news, but neither of you believed me!" Genis flared, oblivious to the fact that Raine was fast approaching from behind. "We'll be here for days looking at rocks and pottery until the world end-" Genis closed his eyes and swallowed. "She's behind me isn't she?"

a99 The smack he received was answer enough for them all.

"Oww…" The silver haired elf rubbed his head and looked over his shoulder to his ill humored sister. "Need to look behind me from now on…" 

Raine coolly sat on a boulder not covered in soot and her pupils crammed into the shadows of a nearby building. She then drew out a bundle of papers from Noishe's basket. The dog only lay down by the professor's feet, his expression saying that he was grateful for the chance to rest.

"Now then to answer your question Lloyd, there was a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions during the last half millennia ago that tossed a large amount of soot into the air, it fell on this city and…"

She went on, and on, and on… And after about ten minuets talk about soot Lloyd felt his eyes begin to shut. Genis poked him, tried to keep him up, but soon became so engrossed in the lecture that he forgot all about Lloyd. And when the poking stopped the inevitable happened. He didn't slump forward, only drooped, his head bowed down, and he mumbled something. With that soft protest sleep snatched him up and through the whole lecture he napped.

Raine only went on, and Genis cheerfully added fuel to her passion of learning by asking a few questions. Soon Colette stopped being interested, and slipped behind Lloyd. After a few playful tugs on his hair bored her she began to tie his shirt's neck ribbons into a braid. From a little ways of in the shade of a pillar Kratos watched it all. He listened to Genis and Raine conduct a conversation about geology and society that left him with a dry taste in his mouth and made his eyes begin to glaze. He watched, as Colette, bored with braiding, began doing some very exotic knot work on Lloyd's ribbons. He smiled indulgently at the girl as she began to take advantage of Lloyd's thick mess of brown hair and work that into braids. Safe enough for the moment he scooted closer to the pillar, tucked one leg under the other it's sprawled mate and shifted his belt around so his sword wasn't digging into him. The basket, he happily pushed that to the side, squirmed a bit, then comfortable let the pillar take most of his weight. From behind a curtain of his own wild auburn hair he watched as Noishe yawned, then rested his head on his paws and followed his master's example. He watched as Colette smiled to Lloyd and began to try to work both hair and ribbon into some sort of artistic weaving masterpiece, and at that sight he chuckled. Colette turned to him, somehow heard the near silent sound, and he waved her on to her pleasure. She smiled, winked, then went back to her work.

He blinked in surprise at the girl's friendliness with him, her trust. He should have considered that a victory he guessed, but for some reason gaining her trust just did not seem important right now. The moment seemed to weigh out everything else, it was peaceful, quiet, and almost like the old days.

He smiled at that thought, it was not all that different from his first journey as a mater of fact, this batch was just as wild and undisciplined. 'And just as crazy too', he thought to himself as he took in Raine's all too bright eyes. 'No crazier, this batch is crazier then the first I traveled with, then my first clients'.

Suddenly, though the trip seemed like it was indeed going to be a long one –two years at most was what his instincts told him- that didn't seem too long a time. And it was not as if he was in a real rush to get this done. He had as much time as he needed. Kratos let his eyes slip shut, he was about ready to attempt to follow Lloyd's example when he heard a soft whisper of sound, a dry raspy croak that did not come from a human throat. Noishe's huge jagged looking ears snapped up, he found his paws, shrugged off all of the junk that Raine had forced on him, then ran off with a whine.

"Huh… what's going on!" Lloyd stumbled to his feet, and his two ribbons of white poked up, supported by the half finished braids Colette had been working on. Over all the effect was much like rabbit ears. Lloyd ignored how Genis had fallen over in laughter, ignored Colette's giggle, and turned to Raine. "Professor where's Noishe?"

"He just got up and left!" The silver haired elf picked up a broken pot like I was her own child and nursed it to her breast. "He broke valuable artifacts!"

"He ran off… everyone we gotta get out of here, the only reason Noishe runs is if there's a monster nearby!" 

"A monster!" Colette hopped to her feet looking scared. 

"Yeah, he's normally brave and stuff but when there's a monster he just freaks and runs."

"Lloyd he runs away from 'rabbits'" Genis snapped, "He probably just smelled a mouse or something."

"He does no run from," Lloyd reached up and worked the ribbons out of his hair, "rabbits." 

"Does too!"  
"Does not!"

"Does too!" 

"Some other time." Kratos barked, pulling his sword from its sheath and standing in one motion. "Silence, don't you hear that?"

"Hear wha-"  
\pard line "Shh!" Lloyd cocked his head to the side then sniffed. "It smells like a maple wood fire."

"Maple wood fire?"

"Shut it Genis! It smells like a fire place! Doesn't anyone else smell it?" 

"Faintly," Kratos scanned the area looking for something out of place.

"Kratos look out!" The boy in red's eyes widened, the mercenary threw himself to the right, and the very earth where he had been exploded in a mess of fire and sand. The wave of fire stopped slamming into the earth and it withdrew, condensed into a flickering or of fire then that too disappeared. And for just for one second a small red orb the size of a dog's toy was visible, then as if offended with the staring it was getting the fire reappeared, whipped around the orb like a shroud, and gave the thing an illusion of being a miniature sun.

"Genis, cast a water spell on it, it's an element of fire!" Raine yelled, then with a slight gesture sent a soft glowing light from her hands, it flew across the space between herself and the mercenary and settled on the man like a bird to roost and some how was absorbed into the man's scorched back. Kratos nodded to the elf in thanks then to their horror walked right up to it and brought his blade down, the orb shuddered, and the fire shivered, then blasted out towards the mercenary. Kratos managed to throw himself to the side, to dive out of the way, and the orb spin around it's awareness seemed to regard all of them then settle on Colette.

"No!" Lloyd jumped between the thing's path of 'sight' and Colette, bradished his lone wooden sword at the thing and could almost hear it laugh at him. 

Realizing he could do nothing Lloyd grabbed Colette's limp hand and ran for the nearest sterdy looking wall.

"Aqua Edge! Uh oh…. No not that way!" Lloyd spun around, and seeing the spell shoot under the monster and still feeling its attention on him did the only thing he could think of. He shoved Colette behind the sanctuary, felt those razor sharp waves smash into his feet and fell on his face. The orb flickered, seemed to be choosing between him and Colette, then when that feeling of being watched settled on him Lloyd paled. He scrambled to his feet cussing up a storm as the fire around it grew darker, more intense.  
He then ran the opposite direction he had shoved Colette into, right into… into a place where there were no safe walls to duck behind, it was all sand and… and one basket, the basket Kratos had been lugging around. Without another thought he dove behind it, tucked himself into a tiny ball, and as a last rational thought tried to curl up as much as he could over his sword so he wouldn't lose his last weapon.

The air roared, he smelled the woven basket catch flame, smelled the burning minerals, and realized that it wasn't enough, that the attack was going to burn through the rocks and get to him and if he moved that wave of fire would follow and… he closed his eyes, put his hands over those eyes, and with a very Noishe like whimper, hoped he was wrong about how stong that fire was and...

"Guadian!" 

Lloyd lifted a hand that he'd put over an eye and looked around. A soft blue, the blue of starlight through ice, through crystal, was all around him. The smell of winter filled his nostrils, dazedly he tried to find his feet, and bumped into something that felt like a wall… no not a wall a shell, a shell of crystal! 

"Stay down!" Kratos snapped at him, and Lloyd meekly nodded his head and lay down. That's when he realized the dark shape in front of him was the mercenary. And some how, with his sword in front of him in a wired salute the mercenary was turning aside that raging fire. From the silver blue tinted world he could see the fires rage around him, saw but did not feel the heat or particularly moved when the sands turned molten and lapped at the edges of the shell like water at the bank of a river.

"C..cold…" 

"Hold out a second more." Kratos ordered calmly, "it's almost over."

Lloyd could only shake and twitch as the winter cold seemed to seep inside of him. He thought somewhere he could hear a whisper of a wind chime, like the one at Phardia's house. It was so soft, so peaceful, he closed his eyes as cold and peace tugged at him. Then suddenly the heat was back, he moaned in pain as his whole body just hurt from the shift of winter cold to fiery hot.

"You're alive!" Colette squeaked she ran to them, hugged the mercenary then hugged him and broke down into tears. Dumbly Lloyd stared around him looking for the fire monster. It wasn't there… and it was then he noticed how Colette was cradling her hand. Ugly red burns were all over it in the rough shape of a crescent moon.

"Professor Raine! Colette's hurt!" Lloyd hollered, Raine and Genis came over then, and it was to Lloyd surprise that Genis had tears in his eyes. It was then Lloyd really looked around.

And he forgot to breath.

A V shapped mass of earth that split from where Kratos had thrown himself in front of Lloyd. The lines of the V were made of pure molten rock. The line run on for several feet, and was still smoldering.  
"Blew itself out." The mercenary said smoothly. As if he did this every day of his life. "You just invoke anything with a trace of fire element in its pride and they all but kill themselves trying to get even. This one did just that and quite literally blew itself out." 

"Shit…" Lloyd gapped at the fire. "How did… what… I… I think need to sit down."

"Are you hurt?" Again that calm, and for a second Lloyd had this feeling it was totally fake. Like the mercenary was shaking inside but not showing it on his outside.

"I… think so…" Lloyd swallowed, and then noticed blood on the older man's shirt. "You're bleeding!" 

"Hmm?" Kratos turned, and noticed the pin prick droplets of blood on his tunic that gave him a few speck of glossy black amongst the mass of normally heavy black fabric. "It's nothing, don't worry about it is an after effect of the technique I used." 

"Oh alright, if you say so…" Lloyd shook, unable to get up just yet, and watched as soft golden light poured from the professor's hands and fell into Colette's. "Th… thanks…" 

"No problem, you have a good eye."

"Oh um yeah well I was the only place you weren't looking you know so go figure that's where it had to be."

Kratos rose an eyebrow at him but said nothing more.

"Lloyd…" Genis decided to attach himself to the young swordsman's side "You're alright, I didn't mean to miss with the spell I didn't I'm sorry and..."

"Whoa, you're starting to Colette-Talk me over here, everything turned out alright." Lloyd ruffled that mess of silver hair. "Don't let it bother you, we're all safe, that's all that matters."

Lloyd hissed as Genis bumped into one of his new burns and Raine turned to him concern in her eyes.

"It's just a sun burn nothing serious and…"

"Tunic off." Raine snapped. He tried to ignored Colette's giggle but he was all too aware that his face was growing really hot.

"I'm fine really, nothing's wrong and… Ouch! Genis!"

"Colette could you, Kratos, and Genis, turn around, it seems as if our hero's shy." 

"Professor!" Lloyd went redder if at all possible. "It's nothing honest!"  
"Come on hero." Genis teased. "Be brave!"

"Shut it."

"Children." Kratos sighed and they all fell quiet and turned around.

Lloyd fumbled with the buttons, blushed even harder as Raine poked and prodded him, then put glowing hands over his burns and watched in satisfaction as they disappeared. She then patted him on the head, and Lloyd almost as red as his shirt, fought with his clothes once again.

"Look you're blushing!" Genis laughed and Lloyd kind of missed the apologetic worried Genis he'd seen a little while back.

"Yeah yeah…" Lloyd reached up and wondered what the heck had happened to his head. Hair didn't normally tangle itself this bad unless it had help.

Colette giggled again and he wondered, for all of two seconds, he had something else on his mind.

"Hey Kratos that spell you used… un Guardian wasn't it?"

"Technique, it is not a spell." Kratos shrugged. 

"Same difference, I was wondering how the heck you do it? I mean it looks like a spell and all but human's can't use magic…" 

"They can not?" Kratos rose an eyebrow as if to say he thought Lloyd was wrong. "Well I guess not, what are you getting at Lloyd?"

He looked at the trail of fire, and knew that this was important, that with this he could protect everyone else. 

"Could you show me how? I mean I might not be able to do it cuz I can't use magic but if I could…"

Kratos smiled at him, not the indulgent smile a man casts at a silly child or a "I know more then you" smirk. This was a real smile. He never saw Kratos smile like that, ever.

"You want lessons, from me? I thought I was the jack ass, stone hearted, jerk, and bastard, whose soul was made of ice. I thought I was the person who would aid no one without feasible profit."

Genis Raine, and Colette even, flinched at Kratos' bland tone and cruel glint of satisfaction in his eyes. Lloyd met that gaze though and did not flinch.

"I don't know who you are, where your from, that's your business unless you want to make it mine. " Lloyd took a deep breath. "We go of on the wrong foot, that's for sure, all of us got on your wrong side. That's then, this is now." Lloyd extended his hand, took in the mercenaries emotionless face, and wondered what the man was thinking if anything. "So, a new beginning? I'm Lloyd Irving."  
"Kratos Aurion…" The mercenary's voice had a certain tight quality to it, and his eyes seemed to seethe with emotion that Lloyd couldn't understand. The mercenary took his hand, gripped it firmly. "A pleasure Lloyd."

"Yeah," Lloyd found a smile on his lips and was surprised to see one that matched it on the mercenary's face. "Same here."

Lloyd firmly told his ex-sphere to stop tingling now and released the older man's hand.

"Umm well I'm gunna go fetch Noishe, um I'll be back in a bit for those lessons, if you wanna teach me that is."

"Not a problem at all." Kratos turned on the other's his eyes had a speculative glint in them. "As a matter of fact it might behoove everyone here if they learn it."

Colette and Genis slid behind Raine. Raine looked like she\pard fs24 'd rather have someone else to hide behind. Lloyd just shrugged and ran off to find Noishe and get back as soon as he could.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Remain calm, take a deep breath, and relax. If you tense up this wont work and you'll just waste your energy." 

Raine nodded, closed her eyes, and frowned.

"It's not a matter of concentration Ms. Sage, just relax totally and you will know what to do. Gather the power before you and force it into the air around you."

A soft green light surrounded the elf woman; I was the green of trees, the green of life. Kratos drew his sword, brought it down on that light and took a step back to absorb the force of his deflected swing.

"Good, boy, the same." 

Genis closed his eyes, then with a smug smile made a sky blue light envelope him. Kratos brought his blade down and had to drop it as lighting slithered across the light and nearly shocked him through his sword.

"Creative… a word of caution though Genis, by making it into an attack you lesson the defensive power. Know when to make it aggressive and defensive and also know that once you pull the trick on someone once they are probably going to figure it out and have a way to counter attack you next time. Also, you drop the shield when you call the lightning, and any man can just as fast drop his sword and work a knife through your fallen protections before the shield is whole."

"I don't drop it!" Genis protested.   
"I may be wrong or I may be right, but do you wan to learn the hard way if that's the case?"

Genis paled and made no farther protests.

Finally Kratos stood before him, and Lloyd felt his blood go cold. He didn't think he could just stand there hoping that a light would push back a sword. Every instinct said for him to dodge, or block with his sword, not just stand there. Yet Kratos seemed to understand that, he sheathed his sword and looked at him for a long moment.

"We'll forgo testing until I'm satisfied you can hold it for a few moments. Now then, recite the lesson."

"Calm, center, the blade can not pass unless I will it." Lloyd closed his eyes, stroked the hilt of his tlinesword like he always did when he was thinking deeply. "The power within is forced without to block the blade, forged of will, of my will I control it, command it and summon and dismiss it with thought." 

"Not through force." Kratos added firmly. "You don't force it, you can't force it, you call it and it comes."

"That what I've been doing wrong?" Lloyd muttered.

"In part. Try it when you are ready."

Lloyd closed his eyes, tried to think about willing something out of him that he couldn't see or touch and felt himself getting lost. He opened his eyes and looked at the mercenary and sighed.

"We've been trying this for an hour and it's not working, look everyone else has it I'll just stick with getting out of the way."

"Like this afternoon?"

Lloyd winced, and closed his eyes, and tried again. He couldn't see it couldn't touch it, and again he got lost.

"All right, what's the problem, you're giving me a headache with that scowl." Kratos gently shook him, brought him out of his attempted trance.

"I can't see it, I can't picture it so…"

"You can not manipulate it, your imagination is the tool you are using and it is limited on this front." Kratos frowned. "I can see the problem then."

"Heh Lloyd's imagination is always limited." Genis teased, but this time his comment cut a bit too deep and Lloyd flinched.

"Ms. Sage, could you take the two children to our camp, I'd like to talk to Lloyd and I could do with a little less distraction."

Raine firmly dragged Genis off and Colette followed.

"Is he right I mean could it be I'm just not smart enough?"

"Do you want my honest opinion, even though it might be a bit… uncomplimentary?"

"Shoot." Lloyd had shrunk into himself, feeling so low he was sure Kratos couldn't kick him down farther.

"Your friend has a very limited idea of what intelligence is. His intelligence, facts, figures, order, is the only type that he has any faith in. Because of that he limits himself and doesn't trust anything else beyond it. Imagine nothing Lloyd." 

"Wha- Alright... Nothing, like think nothing, or imagine a place with nothing in it? You can't do either, unless you want me to go to sleep or something."

Kratos chuckled. "I think you've gotten enough sleep for today."

"Yeah…" Lloyd ran a hand through his now un-braided hair. Colette, he decided was not safe to be by when she got bored. It had taken over an hour to work out the tangle of braids. "I guess so."

"Why not? Why can't you imagine nothing Lloyd? Isn't nothing little more then a deep black pit that stretches to eternity?"

"A pit has sides, nothing can't have sides cuz then it has something, and…" Lloyd stared at his hands. "Well most pits have a bottom, and how'd you know it doesn't have a bottom unless you check?" 

"Very good, ask Genis that sometime and I wager he would not have come to your conclusion, or rather the one you are getting at."

"What am I getting at?"

Kratos seemed to ignore that. "It will come to you eventually if you think on it. Now, the point, the problem might be that you are trying to imagine something you can not comprehend. A blind man can not see colors therefore it would be impossible for him to distinguish between two of them if they were put before him. I have been teaching you like you can see mana, and that is my problem, you can not, that is why you are stumbling."

"Oh, I get it… I think… Maybe…." 

"What do you think of when I say red?"

"It's my favorite color."  
"I should have seen that one." Kratos shielded his face with a hand and taped on finger against his chin, the mercenary was obviously thinking fast. "How about the color blue?"

"Umm winter?"

"Winter?" Kratos cocked his head to the side, his red-brown hair fell into his eyes. "And what is winter Lloyd?"

"Cold, it snows sometimes and…" He then launched into a story about how he filled a bucket with snow and put it on the door frame to the temple so when one of the priests opened it… Kratos did not seem to mind this tangent, merely listened then nodded as if satisfied.

"Emotional, I should not have been surprised." Catching the confused look Kratos frowned, his manner was of someone trying to explain something complicated. "one person thinks differently from all others, but there are ways to tell the general way a person sees their world. You rely on emotion, intuition, hunches and put the world together after you experience it. That is what I've been doing wrong, since you can not experience mana there is no way that what I've been saying has been helping you. Try this insteed, think of somewhere safe, the safest place in the world to you. Once you remember that and the feeling, focus on the feeling Lloyd, I want you to try to imagine it around you, holding you, protecting you. Am I making any sense?" 

"A little bit."

Lloyd closed his eyes, and tried to think of all the places he felt safe…. And was not coming with much of anything. He racked his brain, tried to remember not feeling confident that he could take care of himself. Then something, something kind of slithered around in his head. It was like a glimpse of something from under a curtain. The smell of leather, steel, sweat, a gentle touch, fabric under his hands, and starlight, those things washed over him, confused him a little, but made him feel safe and warm. That warmth seemed to drift around him, like gentle hands, a bell sounded and he snapped his eyes open.

Kratos stood giving him a long brooding look, and it was then he realized that the whole world was tinted a silver blue. There was a flash of light, and he blinked as the world regained it's normal color. The mercenary sheathed his blade, and it was only then that he realized the man had slammed his sword into the shield's light.

"That's tough." Lloyd muttered, trying to not sway while he stood.

"You over did it somewhat this time, practice and you will get better." 

And with that the mercenary walked off.

"Hey, where are you going?"

Kratos merely shrugged, his cloak flapped in the late afternoon breeze like a pair of wings.

"You don't come back in an hour and I'll make Noishe fetch you, and you wont like that!" Lloyd called to the man.

He might as well be talking to the air, Kratos ducked behind a building and was gone.

"I'll never figure that guy out." Lloyd shrugged, shifted his sword around, then turned to camp the others had made. It was a short walk, and when he returned alone the professor gave him a funny look.

"He went for a walk I guess." Lloyd shrugged. "I'm starved, what's for dinner?"

"I'm so happy you asked." Raine grinned and Lloyd remembered that she was going to cook all the meals, and he'd come back without eating the snack he'd made earlier today. "Pea and green pepper soup and we will be having spicy cake for desert!"

"Oh.. nice…" Lloyd realized why Kratos hadn't come back, and he'd probably stay away until dinner was over… or try.

Lloyd took his bowl of food and joined Genis, who wasn't quite at the 'need to take a walk' faze of Raine's cooking yet.

"Hey Genis you think Kratos' trails up yet?"

"I don't think I could stomach another trial day myself." The elf hissed, rubbing his stomach.

"So he's one of us."

"Kind of…" Genis looked like he was suffering and would be leaving soon.

"So he's one of us, thick and thin." Lloyd lifted Noishe's whistle.

"I'd say… yeah." Genis smiled at the whistle, an evil smile. 

"Raine's cooking too?"

"That's the thick part I think." Genis swallowed hard. "I'm gunna go take a walk Raine!" He called to his sister and all but ran off.

Lloyd only grinned, then blew on the whistle

Noishe came out of the gathering darkness, the sun's dying rays set his silver coat to a multitude of fiery hues.

"Hey glorious green leader," Lloyd grinned to Noishe and the dog wagged his tale as he heard Lloyd address him by his rank. "New member's going to be late for the meeting, you wanna bring him here?"

"Bark!" Noishe ran off, tail waging like mad.  
Leaning against his nest of packs, blankets and artifacts that Raine asked him to guard, Lloyd smiled and waited eagerly for the stars to come out. Noishe would take a while and he could sneak some star gazing into it before the new vict- err member joined them. He couldn't wait to see Kratos' face when he found out the leader was Noishe, it would be great. With that parting image he drifted off to sleep.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx 

"Lloyd, you have got to see this!"

"Huh!" Lloyd blinked, then stared at where Genis pointed. The elf was trying his best not to laugh at the sight of the big bad mercenary being dragged to the camp by his belts. Genis laughed and Kratos' glare could have killed them all. Showing typical loyalty when faced with an angry adult Genis pointed to Lloyd.

"He owns the whistle, yell at him."

"You told me it was alright." ne   
"Did not!" Genis yelled.

"Did…" Lloyd sighed. "Not again, alright, yes I did it, you were late so I had Nosihe fetch you."

"Meeting." Raine asked.

"Umm yeah, that's right, so we'll be off then…"

"Have fun." Raine looked to the baffled mercenary. "They think their so mysterious, all they do is gossip, the only mystery is their initiation process."

"Yes," Kratos glared at Noishe and was dropped to the sands. "A mystery..."

Colette only giggled, then went back to reading some book in angelic by the fire. 

"Oh here's your dinner." Raine handed him a bowl of something green and a slice of yellow soft bread with red specks on top. "I'll see you when you get back."

Her tone had the heavy reek of 'go run along and play' to it.

"This had better be worth it." Kratos snarled to himself a he trailed after the children, if it wasn't he would keep his words and both boys would be force fed more of Raine's cooking.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx 

"You actually brought that? Dump it over there, we have sandwiches." Genis pointed to the one blanket he'd brought, and there was in all truth one sandwich on it. Kratos eagerly obeyed, snatched at the real food and took a seat on a nearby rock. "I guess the first thing about this is that we all have taken an oath to prevent Raine from cooking. But most people don't believe she's so bad at it so we normally have to make the experience it first…" 

"I think I'd rather starve to death before even smelling that food again." Kratos muttered.

"Amen." Lloyd snuggled more into his blanket and the nook between two blasted walls he had claimed for himself. "That's the first oath, only in the case of two broken arms do we allow Raine to cook."

"Is that all this is?" Kratos asked. "An anti-Raine cooking club, while the cause is noble enough…"

"There's more to it, our leader's late when our leader gets here we will cover everything."

"Colette, she's the leader?"

"Nope. Try again."

"Certainly not Raine."

"Nope," Genis turned to Lloyd. "Hey five gald if he stutters once reality set in!"

"You know you keep losing these bets maybe you should stop or something but yeah, fine I'll take you on that one."

"Noishe… Noishe… … he's…"

"Oh man this was worth it!" Genis laughed at the mercenary's expression.

"Yeah… guess so…" Lloyd closed his eyes.

"Hey, no sleeping!" Genis picked up a pebble and hit Lloyd with it.

"I'm tired.. magic's tiring!"

"Yeah well I'll magic you awake next time!" Genis mock growled.

"Yeah sure." Lloyd looked up to the darkening sky.

Genis entertained himself by throwing pebbles at Lloyd while Kratos felt his patience slowly running out.

"Is there any point to this at all?" Kratos' voice had dipped to a dangerous whisper.

"Huh, Genis let's run through the signals for Colette since she isn't here, seems safe enough. I'm guessing Noishe couldn't get away but I don't think he'll care that he wasn't here for this."

"Signals?"

"We have a code worked out, some of it's in what we say and some of it's gestures or bits of dwarven. Most of the time we use it if we think something's wrong with Colette. First thing about her you really need to know, she never tells you if something's wrong, you have to figure it out for yourself, so that's what we do, someone sees something and gets worried it's how we let the other's know without telling her."

"Because the second she knows she tries to hide it." Genis added glumly.

"And then you start to say 'did it really happen?' She's managed to hide a cold so long that it turned to something nastier before Raine could do anything about it." Lloyd looked to the stars, but neither mercenary or wizard missed how his hand clenched on the hilt of his sword. "So after Colette you wanna teach him my signals then I finish by running through yours?"

"Lloyd that might not be safe I mean there might be another fire elemental around."

Lloyd sighed, "Man I wanted to explore."

"What you mean," Genis' grin appeared. "Was you were getting bored, I swear you have the attention span of a fish."

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

Kratos took a bite into the sandwich more to keep from saying anything cutting to either of the boys then any real appetite. He ate the whole sandwich while the 'fight' continued. Kratos sick and tired of it glared at the children. His eye that peeked out from his wild hair seemed to turn the air to fire and the elf who was in mid stinging retort lost his train of thought. Lloyd paled, woke up completely, and was groping in the dark for his remaining sword but when Kratos didn't get up and kill them he relaxed a small bit.

"Yeah... the signals... right let's work on them right now..." Lloyd managed to find his wits before Genis. "Alright whenever I see anything funny going on with Colette but don't know what it is I always ask a question about rain, not the professor but weather you know? Now depending on what else I say after..."

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"I'll give you boys credit, this is a thorough system you've set up." Kratos admitted as Genis wound up his end of the briefing. "If you hadn't told me what was going on I'd never had known it even existed."

"Scary thing is Lloyd made most of it up." Genis tossed a pebble at the Iselian swordsman who slept through the attack. "And it was his idea too, after Colette got really sick after hiding that cold he decided we needed to do something about it and he spent days making this up. We used to have it written down but after a while we both just memorized it and burned the notes."

"I would never have expected any subtlety from him, he seems honest, to a fault."

"He is, that's why we only have a few things that we can talk about in it. We could have made a whole language up but all it really can say is who's sick, hiding something, or to arrange a time to plan something."

Another pebble went flying, smacked against Lloyd's boot and the swordsman still slept on.

"You haven't told me everything yet have you."

"Things we can't tell you, like the code we made up for you for starters. But we never hide anything dangerous, ever, that's part of the oath we hold up."

"You never made me swear to anything," Kratos protested mildly, the glare he shot Genis was enough to make the boy put the pebble aside and leave Lloyd alone. "Why is that."

"You're only in part of the way." The silver hair lad told him, fearlessly meeting those black brown eyes. "We only teach you what's necessary for now, if you get in all the way then we'll come up to you privately and brief you on what we keep secret from everyone else."

"You don't trust me yet?" Kratos did not sound pained, was only stating a fact.

"No, I don't." Genis stared at the sky, it was better then those all too calm eyes. "The only ones here who I think do are Noishe and Lloyd. But then I don't know that for sure. I can tell you this though, we all have our oaths, our... Rules that we go by and we will tell you them if you ever pass our individual tests. We were open about this test, we wont be open about our personal tests. I can also say that no one has ever passed my test, Colette and Rain have passed each other's and I think Raine might have passed Lloyd's, but I'm not too sure. I also know that the only reason Lloyd didn't ask Colette to accept his oath was because there's something in it that she'd never agree too. Well that's what Raine told me."

"I have to wonder what Lloyd's oath is... if there is something that he feels Colette wouldn't do... it makes me wonder." Kratos shifted his gaze to Lloyd, Genis could feel it slide off of him and onto his best friend. "Aren't you jealous, that your sister passed and you have not?"

"No," Genis picked up another pebble and threw it at a cactus. "I know Lloyd, he has a good reason and though he is a thick headed sometimes he knows what he's doing, there's gotta be some reason why I can't do part of it, for all I know I'm just too young."

Genis threw the next pebble a bit harder, telling himself he was not jealous, saying it over and over again in his head.

"Trust his judgement, I would, and that says a lot." Kratos' attention seemed to have drifted back to him. It made Genis shiver. There was something creepy about Kratos, and it wasn't that he wore all black.

"You don't know him, how can you say that?" Another pebble was thrown, harder then the last.

"I know his type, protective, honest, loyal, dedicated, I've seen bits of him in the faces of those around me." Kratos sighed. "We should head back, night has fallen and many creatures come out to hunt when the sun sets in this clime."

"No, I'll wake him up." Genis grinned as the mercenary turned to him. He rubbed his hands together and Kratos wisely stepped aside. Genis tip-toed to Lloyd and cupped his hands over Lloyd's face. He whispered a quick chant, filled his hands with icy water. Then with a quiet chuckle Genis spread his hands apart and let the summoned water fell.

"Ack! Co..cold! Damn it Genis you are dead you hear me!" Lloyd staggered to his feet, tripped over his sword that he'd left on his lap. He stooped over looked desperately for his blade, then finding it got to his feet and held it over his head like a club. "When I get you you'll wish Raine was raine'ing you!"

Genis was running before Lloyd had even finished the first word.

"How can you stand this!" The young man growled at Kratos, he then pulled his hair out of his eyes. "You're mince meat you hear me Genis! You're going to be Noishe snacks when I'm done with you!" He hollered into the night, then muttering something about a puddle he ran after the wizard.


	7. Blood and fire

To my readers,

A very intelligent fake, some sneaky firebirds, and a fight and flight up several stairs... I tried to stick with the original temple lay out as best I could and (as always eh?) I added a little here and there. You'll see why and how if you read on. Oh and sorry to those hopping for a ShenaxLloyd this is so far going in the direction of most ColettexLloyd stories. Umm I took out the kangaroo fire things because… well let's just say the scene would be even harder to write then it was.

Kasan Soulblade

Chapter 7

"I am officially scared." Lloyd whispered to Colette. Raine was "ooh"ing and "aww"ing over a flat slab of glossy black rock. She had taken out a brush and had whipped away all the dust. Letters had been carved in the stone but time had worn them down so much you had to touch the stone and feel for each symbol. Charcoal stick in one hand, a sheaf of papers in her mouth, and one piece of paper on the stone and she was slowly transferring the massive slab by dragging the charcoal over each page and making a massive graphite copy one page at a time.

"Don't be scared Lloyd, the professor's just playing! Professor, can I help?"

"I am happy someone has an appreciation for all the valuable material I am collecting." The elf huffed, giving the men a long look, obviously not hearing the first part of what Colette had said. Genis hid a smile behind a hand and Lloyd almost ate his knuckle keeping the laughter down. "Of course dear, could you start on that end and I'll meet you in the center."

"Alright!" Colette smiled, fished a wad of paper from her packs and skipped over to the professor. A small rock went flying and Colette's feet tangled with each other. She squeaked, reached blindly in front of her, and managed for once to catch herself. Holding onto a slender pillar of stone Colette managed to catch herself before she fell and pulled herself to her feet. The runes that Raine had been so laboriously copy by hand flared to life, red light filled them, they all took a few steps forward to better see the spectacle. 

All except Raine.

"What a fascinating phenomenon! I must take notes!"

And by the merciful hand of Martel of some other god the red light disappeared, and the stone slab shivered and slid into the sand choked earth. Raine just barely managed to scramble to the sands before the slab totally disappeared under her.

"The relic, it disappeared!" Rain wailed, sounding a lot like a little kid denied a candy.

"Wow!" Lloyd scrambled forward, poked his head into the dark opening, a cave of some sort. He reached out, patted the brown stone floor and turned to his companions. "Tamed stone, umm I mean it's worked, or was a looong time ago. I'm going deeper in!" 

Then before anyone could say anything Lloyd went into the pitch darkness. There was a long time in where Lloyd didn't return.

"I'm not going to wait any longer!" Colette's voice was filled with a steel that shocked Genis and Raine. "Lloyd!" Colette gasped as cold hands restrained her before she could take her first step down the pit. Grimly the mercenary held her back, she shivered in his grasp, thrashed. "He might be in trouble you have to let me go!"

"No Ms. Brunel, I do not have to do anything. Have a bit more faith in him then that, he'll come back when he's ready to."

"What if he's hurt, lost!" Colette protested, she felt tears building behind her eyes. She whimpered as Kratos tightened his grip. "Please Kratos I have to go down!"

"No child, you will be staying here until I say other wise."

"Let her go!" Genis drew his kendama from his belt.

"Genis!" Raine ripped the weapon from his hands. "Everyone, calm down!"

Colette stiffened, went still at the note of command in Raine's voice and Kratos loosened his grip a bit in response to that.

"We'll give him ten more minuets then we'll all go down. You can let her go now Mr Aurion, she wont run off."

Kratos only lifted an eyebrow, let go of Colette, but she could still feel his gaze on her. And she knew that if she did try to go before Raine said they could he'd grab her again. Since all she could do was look at the pit and pray that's exactly what she did.

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He had squeezed past the big boulder near the entrance and felt the sunlight no longer to his back. The dark was so intense, so complete, that to him the light was almost a touch across his skin. Now in the dark, a dark filled with who knew what Lloyd gripped his sword. After tripping twice Lloyd was about ready to go back -what was the point of going ahead if he couldn't see anything?- when a pinching at his ring finger made him thing of something that should of come to him a heck of a lot earlier.

"Like Genis would say, I'm pretty dumb."

In the dark he grinned at his own stupidity, lifted his hand and with just a bit of concentration set a few sparks to dangling in the air. It was enough to see by, or rather enough to see something that'd make his life even easier. Even though the fire was fast in fading Lloyd groped at the wall, then with a wrench pulled it out of the slot. Another bit of concentration later and the torch that had caught Lloyd's attention was now lit.

"Alright, now then, I'll just go down this hall till it branches off and mark my way by lighting all of these!" Lloyd smiled at the mass of torches on the wall he was right by.

Grinning at his own intelligence Lloyd cheerfully lit the nearest torch then after walking a few feet lite the one after that. He went on like that till he'd lite twenty torches behind him and the narrow hall opened up into a room that was shaped like a crescent moon the Iselian stopped.

"Man that is one weird wall." Lloyd stared at the curved wall. It looked like it might of belonged to a domed building, like the top of a chapel that had been buried, and if that was the case if had to be huge! He spied three closed doors on the side of the dome and fought down the temptation to go to the nearest and open it. "I'm not alone, I can't run off and check it out because I'm not alone." He muttered that to himself and took one step back. "Can't explore until everyone's here, can't go ahead till everyone catches up." The next step was a little harder, that door was just screaming to be opened. His foot bumped into something, something wooden. Startled he kicked aside a rock and revealed a wooden box.

He couldn't rightfully open the door, that could be dangerous, but what would be wrong with opening a box? He pushed off the rocks that had been piled on top of the lid and stared at it. It was a bit of a disappointment, there was no decoration or runes. But after all the runes he had to stare at and listen to Raine talk about maybe that wasn't so bad a thing. He bent down, grabbed the edges of it. That was funny, it didn't have any latched that he could see or feel... He blinked, passed his hand over the top of the box and frowned. He could have sword there was no latches or anything, that it was smooth, but now he felt a little groove cut out of the wood.

Without thinking about it he poked that little groove and the whole box hopped and whimpered!

It sounded so like Noishe, and it sounded like it was in such pain Lloyd felt sympathy build in him. He patted it on it's top side and stammered out an apologia, the thing whined and hopped away from him, then spun around once it was a few feet away.

"Hey, I'm sorry I didn't mean to poke you... in... the eye."

Indeed it was an eye, a small bright yellow one, that when it focused on him turned blood red.

"I'm sorry, look I was just leaving and..." Lloyd stepped back, and watched as a thin line form along the long side of the box facing him. That line then opened, much like a chest would open once you undid the latch and gave it a shove, but what was inside set his heart to ice. Teeth, teeth longer then his fingers and a bright red tongue lolled out and slid across the thing's lips.

With a Noishe-like growl it hopped across the stone floors.

"No, no back, bad dog-treasure chest- thing!" He reached out with his sword and pushed the things back with the point. It whined and slid back, then with another series of loud banging hops came at him again. This time when he tried to shove it back it bit down on his sword.

"Hey, let go!"

It only growled, and chewed on the wooden sword.

"Off!" 

It ignored him, seemed content to chew on the weapon like a dog would chew on a toy.

A flap of wings made him turn. No way that could be a bird, and it wasn't. Well it wasn't a normal bird. The last torch he lit shattered and fell to the floor in smoldering bits and it was like the sun bird of legend was coming at him. Except this sun bird was about the size of a crow, but it still dripped flame and it's ember blue eyes focused on him with maliciousness that the real sun bird was supposed to not have. With a screech it dove at him, and Lloyd tried to bring his sword around to block, but it was too heavy. Abandoning sword and box Lloyd dove to the side, the thing's claws snapped at the ribbons around his neck, and at their passing set the ribbon aflame.

Lloyd cursed, ripped the ribbons off and then bent over under the force of the box's attack. The box decided to spit out his sword at him, and nailed a very hard hit into his gut. Croaking out even more profanities Lloyd grabbed his sword, rolled to the side as the bird made another pass that left him patting his head to extinguish more flame. He then had a new problem, the box charged, it's fang-ed mouth clapping it crossed the distance between them in a series of heart stopping jumps that set his head to aching due to their loudness. He knew without looking that the bird was wheeling around in a slow lazy circuit, from years of watching hawk at him he knew that those flaps he heard were to gain altitude for it's next dive. And from the pricking on the back of his neck he knew that the creature had him in it's line of attack

"Eat this!" He growled at the box, thrusting his sword right into that greedy mouth. It bit down and instead of standing their waiting for it to spit out his sword Lloyd loosed the hilt, and ran behind the little monster. He picked it up with a grunt and threw it with all the strength in his arms at the fire bird. The bird flared it's wings, started to slow down and turn itself while a flight. And between one flap and another the box landed on it. There was a loud whoosh and the fire went out leaving little more then ashes on the floor, that and a singed hopping box. The box spat out his sword at him, but expecting it Lloyd was able to dodge this time. He stared at the rocks that had held the thing down, then picked up the biggest one he felt he could throw. 

"Alright, I'm now really ticked off!"

The box only growled at him.

"Here big mouth eat this!" Lloyd threw the rock and the box hopped up and swallowed it on one gulp then took a hop forward. He threw rock after rock and after each rock the box's hops became smaller and smaller. By the time it managed to slide itself at him ten rocks were used up. It looked up at him, opened it's huge mouth and snapped at the air less then an inch away. It kept flapping it's mouth open and closed at that patch of air, still wanting to eat him alive. He left it alone, went to one of the massive rocks that had come out from the wall and rolled it to the box. Ignoring the whine Lloyd picked up the rock and dropped it on the box's open mouth.

"Mmummph!" 

"Yeah, whatever." Lloyd brushed off dust, embers, and stared at the thing while it whined at him. Confident he was safe from the monster, confident it was going to be until sometime next regeneration the thing would free itself Lloyd started back.

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"Hey guys I'm back!"

Colette opened her eyes a smile on her face. She ran to Lloyd, hugged him, not caring about the dust and grime, just happy he was back. He staggered under the Noishe style hug-tackle hybrid, and smiled at her. Colette felt her heart warm at that smile, she'd been so worried for him and he was back and safe and everything was alright now!

"Easy Colette!" Lloyd laughed, reached out with one hand to hug her and with the other to steady himself on the cavern's wall.

"I'm sorry Lloyd!" She felt herself blush and let go of him. 

"Don't apologize, not for hugging me, just don't Noishe-hug me when I'm on stairs OK?"

"Alright, sorry..."

They both smiled at each other for a bit, then finally Kratos cleared his throat. Lloyd hopped, blushed and rubbed a hand through the back of his hair and turned to the older man.

"What took you so long?"

Uh-oh Raine and Kratos sounded mad, but what was even scarier was that Kratos and Raine said it at the same time. That meant they were both really really mad. She sniffed the air and realized what that funny smell that had bothered her was. Lloyd smelled like soot, she took a long look at him and gasped.

"Lloyd, what happened to your ribbons and your hair, it's all ashy!" 

"Umm well..." Lloyd went red, rubbed at his head again. "Nothing... I'm fine really..."

"You were fighting." Raine's voice went up a few dangerous octaves and got loud.

"Not intentionally, I got attacked by a torch and a... box..."

"A what!" Genis laughed, and maybe it sounded a bit silly but Lloyd looked hurt and the Professor looked really mad.

"One of the torches turned into a bird and it attacked my head OK?" Lloyd snapped at Genis, he sounded a little mad himself. "And the box bit my sword, see!" Lloyd lifted his sword and they could all see what looked like teeth marks all over it.

Raine beckoned him over and with a sigh Lloyd was checked over for burns. The Professor sighed, shook her head, and let him go.

"Nothing serious, though how a torch would attack you I still don't understand... and a box, really Lloyd I don't know where you get your wild imagination. I can't do anything for your hair it's going to have to grow back on it's own, just be more careful when you're lighting torches from now on."

"A... box..." Genis was giggling, and now that she knew Lloyd was safe it did seem kind of silly after all. "What kind of box was it Lloyd, did it have razor sharp teeth?"

"Yes, it did, and I didn't do this to myself!" Lloyd glared at Genis, sounding a bit angry, even Mr. Kratos was smiling a bit like he thought Lloyd's box was just a funny story.

"I believe you Lloyd!" Colette chirped, hugged him, just happy he was back and OK.

"Thanks Colette." Lloyd smiled and lost all his anger and that made Colette even happier. Suddenly the temple, that had made her scared, didn't seem so bad anymore.

"I presume we are ready to get going then?" Kratos was looking at them funny, and maybe not liking the funny look Lloyd took her hand. When he did that Colette felt her smile grow wider, when Lloyd held her hand even what awaited her in the temple didn't seem scary at all. Nothing seemed scary when Lloyd held her hand, and she'd trust him to take her anywhere so long as they were hand in hand. Kratos looked down, stared at their hands and seemed ready to say something, he only gave Lloyd a very long look then nodded.

"Come on, let's go, we must begin the excavation at once!" Raine seemed ready to burst with her Ruin happiness, and all but shoved everyone aside to run in.

"Wait up professor!" Lloyd yelled, and they both ran into the dark temple, squirmed past the boulder and went into the torch lit hall. 

"This is not a field trip, nor is it some scientific expedition!" Kratos growled after them. If he said anything else though Colette didn't hear it.

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"We are the only sensible people here, aren't we." Genis said to the large man in black. Forgetting, for just a little bit, that Kratos was 'creepy'.

"It looks like it." The mercenary growled, glaring at the cave that lead to the seal of fire.

"It's like having little kids around all the time, isn't it?"

"You hardly have the right to talk Genis."

Genis blinked, it was the first time Kratos had ever called him by his familiar name. Kratos had either called him Mr. Sage, elf, or boy, but never Genis. The Iselian wizard blinked, could not get over his surprise.

"We should head in." The mercenary said cooly, then he didn't walk but flowed down the stairs and ghosted past the boulder. Once past the boulder Kratos disappeared, fading into the shadows of the temple.

Alone with Noishe the wizard turned to the dog.

"Hey you coming in with us?"

Even though he was just an animal and a bit dumb the dog managed to give Genis a look that made the boy squirm. He could almost hear the scathing 'even if I could fit you think I'd go in a place swarming with monsters?' Trying to ignore Lloyd's dog, who was giving him a look that he could have sworn was part scorn part exasperation the silver haired wizard gathered the ruminants of his courage then went into the dark mouth of the temple.

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"Lloyd, why is this wonderful rune covered box have a boulder on top of it?" Raine pointed to the box Lloyd had taken several pains to cover with rocks.

"That's the box that bit me, don't go near it, it's dangerous!" Lloyd warned the professor, but she paid him no heed, had knelt down by the box and frowned.

"Lloyd, it says in elvish on this side 'books inside' I just don't know where you get your ideas. Come on, I'll prove it's completely harmless, help me push this rock off of it."

"No!" Lloyd scrambled away from Raine. "No way, you think I'm nuts enough to..."

"What in the Goddess's name are you yelling for now?" Genis seemed to appear as if by magic out of the darkness, he had a grin on his face. "Is he still trying to tell you the box bit him, I bet he just can't lift the rock."

"I can too but I'm not going to!" Lloyd growled, crossing his arms in front of his chest in a show of his trademark stubbornness. "And don't have Kratos do it, unless you want to get a new mercenary or something."

"I believe." Kratos commented from the other side of the room, surprised that the boy would go out of his way to warn him from helping the elves. "That box might indeed be dangerous; I will have nothing to do with it."

"Genis..." 

"On it." The sibs smiled, the lure of books was far too much for them to turn down, they were going to ignore Lloyd's warning and perhaps put themselves and the Chosen in danger. He shook his head, drew his sword, and watched Lloyd draw his own blade and tense up in fear. That was enough, the mercenary believed Lloyd, the young man's fear was genuine, and it was so intense that a foul taste drifted into the mercenary's mouth.

With a quick chant the elf summoned a great gust of wind and the massive boulder rolled off of the box. A soft moan drifted from the depths of the box, and what the lid levitated itself off of the floor and snapped back onto its proper place.

"Colette, stay back." Lloyd ordered, watching the box tensely, his hands were shaking a bit.

With a soft creak the lid opened on unseen hinges, and inside there were no books. Both elves looked at the box and began to back up, now believing, now that it was too late to do anything about it. 

'Fools, yet they are useful fools in a way. I guess this is how I'll earn my pay keeping the fools away from their own stupidity and protecting the Chosen from them as well as the world around us.' 

Teeth sprouted from the inner edge of the lid, jutted out form the outer edge of the box like a hundred misplaced tusks. He could hear Colette gasp in terror, could hear Lloyd muttered promise that he'd protect her.

'Foolish child you promise something you can not hope to keep.' Pity not scorn fueled that thought, the sour taste in his mouth intensified.

Time to earn his keep, dropping his blade in a salute to his foe the mercenary charged this strangest of enemies.

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Kratos' blade seemed to come out of no where, snap down and tangle amongst the monster's teeth. It growled, its teeth scrapped across the steel, and then suddenly it threw itself to the side. The man cursed, then they all stared at the beast as it proceeded to chew on the steel sword and made sounds of happy satisfaction.

"Look out it's gunna..."

With a sound that Rinae could only describe as a loud "Pitooie!" out came the sword. Using a complicated mechanism of tongue and lips plus organs that Raine could not even imagine exist, the monster spat out Kratos' sword and the mercenary doubled over with a grunt of pain as the blade's hilt smashed into him. Raine was then introduced to the colorful language that a man on the road gathered, she was impressed. She was though more impressed when the box clapped its lip against it's... 'body' in a strange kind of applause. And for just a second Raine thought the beast was well, laughing at Kratos.

"Genis to the other side of the room cast your spells on it! We'll buy you as much time as we can!"

She didn't turn, trusted in him to know when to run. Then brought her staff down on the thing when its' mouth was closed. It whined, for all the world sounding like a dog, and its yellow eye turned red. It then opened its huge 'mouth' and favored Raine with a very impressive view of its teeth. It hopped for her, this monster that was no higher then her ankle hopped at her and snapped its fangs together in rage. Squeaking in terror Raine swung her staff and pushed the thing back a foot or two. It spun around from the force of her swing, and then licked its lips with that illogically long tongue. That one eye narrowed at her and the mercenary. Raine watched in fascination as the tongue darted into the dark depths of the box and came out with a fist sized rock.

A ring flashed across the darkness, smacked into the rock and it rolled from the thing's tongue.

It snapped its jaws, hopped in place, then threw itself at Kratos' face. The mercenary ducked behind his shield, brought his sword around to stab the beast perhaps thinking to get the strike in as it bounced off the shield. A loud crunch filled the room, and both adults gapped in awe as the box bit down on the edge of the shield and tried to wrench it from the mercenary's arm. If it had been a normal shield, a knight's shield that was held in the hand it might have worked, but the straps that bound the protective steel to the black clad man's arm were so tightly wound that the beast was having no luck. It was doing a very good job in its attempts to wrench Kratos' arm from its socket however.

Raine brought her staff down and smacked it against the human's shield. The beast gasped in pain and loosed its grip on the mercenary's shield. Both adults wisely gave the thing wide berth and Raine spared a glance at the children's direction. Lloyd was coming their way, desperate to help. Genis was frantically gesturing in the air, calling the mana and shaping it with word and hand. Colette, she writhed with indecision, wanting to help, but knowing she shouldn't.

Raine understood the girl's dilemma; she would have been right by her side in most circumstances. Only luck –good or bad she didn't know- had put her in the front lines. She knew the feeling, it was the same sick wrench that she got when Genis swam in the lake just outside of town, the same feeling when she saw Lloyd strike out at Ivan to protect her brother and shrug of the accusations from the mayor that he had started the fight, it was the same sick feeling when one of the guards would slip into the school room and call for the eldest to get up, there were monster attacking the flocks and farms on the outer edge of town and all able to use arms were to come.

It was helplessness, weakness, and those old feeling bled into anger. With a shriek Raine brought her staff around and the force of her swing set the box flying back. It landed with a clatter, wobbled, and using its tongue to push off the floor managed to right itself.

"Take this!" Lloyd swept his blade across the ground and the silver light rolled ahead of him. He box threw itself at Raine, not seeing or caring for Lloyd's attack it just wanted to take the weakest person in reach and rend them apart.

It would have been smarter to attack Kratos, safer, for when enraged Raine was the most powerful thing in all of Sylvarant. This enraged teacher the most deadly force in the entire world. Raine lifted her staff over her head and brought it down in a vicious two handed swing with put every ounce of strength in her body into that swing.

There was a crack, the thing smashed into the earth, forced down onto the stones in mid hop. It managed a whine, and then was sent across the room in a blast of silver light. Kratos growled, let his sword passed across the earth and two ripples of silver light ran across the floor less then a foot apart. At the first wave the box flinched, at the second it smashed into a pillar then fell. It did not get up, did not move or growl or anything. The lid clattered to the earth and it looked for all intents and purposes a battered box, three screaming orbs of fire arched over their heads, smashed into the box and it was with satisfaction that all felt that they watched it burn.

"Oh maaaan that was tough!" Lloyd slumped down in his knees panting. "I told you it was bad news, I warned you guys!"

"You did, and I am sorry." Raine looked Lloyd over, he seemed a bit tired but doing that attack of his always left him tired. She sighed in relief, no one was hurt, well all except Kratos who was sporting several bruises on his arm, but while she could do nothing for those bruises she could numb the pain out. The mercenary growled, swung her arm to test her work, then glared in anger at the state of his shield.

Not even a thank you, but then she wasn't expecting any gratitude from him.

"Wow Professor, you're really strong, that thing never knew what hit it! Hey good work Genis!"

"Thanks!" Genis smiled at Lloyd, seemed to glow from the praise. In Raine's memory it was the first time Lloyd hadn't just told Genis his magic was cool. There was a huge difference between 'cool' and being useful, more feeling lay behind 'useful'.

Raine felt a smile on her lips and the lecture she was going to give about Lloyd not needing to step in died on her lips. Certainly battle while scary was exiting, just a little bit mind.

"You OK Kratos? I thought that thing was having your arm for lunch."

"I am fine." Kratos stared at his shield and made an annoyed noise. "You visited the weapon's shop in Triet; do they have anything of good quality in way of shields?"

"Yeah a few good ones, why..." Lloyd stared at the shield, or rather the chunk that had been bitten off by the box. "Never mind, yeah I saw a few."

"Good." The mercenary bent down and pulled a needle like dagger from his boot, the weapon was so well hidden by the buckles that Ranie had not seen it until Kratos had drawn it out. The man fumbled with the straps of leather around his arm, worked the shield off, then slung it over his back. "About that torch that attacked you could you enlighten us on what happened to you in full? That might be very useful." The auburn haired mercenary nodded to the box, as if to rebuke them all for not believing Lloyd in the first place.

'you're not as innocent of that as you pretend to be Mr,. Aurion, I saw the disbelief in your eyes, the mocking smile.'

Ung the male's high and mighty attitude was very annoying, how Lloyd even tolerated it made Raine wonder.

"Alright…" Lloyd was too shook up to tease them all about not believing him, and as he launched into the story about how he first entered to room and what had happened Raine leaned against the nearest wall. Exhilarating as it was fighting was also rather tiring. And by the looks of it they still had a great deal more to do.

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Humiliation, that box had humiliated him, made a mockery of his skill. Or rather it would have had he still possessed that over weaning pride that had once driven him to the edge a thousand times in his youth. Now it was a lesson, one he was glad to have survived. Lloyd scuffed his feet in the manner suiting a young child, grumbled a bit under his breath about boxes, and from that Kratos knew that the young man was looking back and not enjoying his second taste of humility. He recalled the venomous glare that Lloyd had shot him; it had followed the praise Lloyd's friends had heaped on him after he'd save them from the Desian warrior. He grimaced at the memory, recalled the word fight they'd had, the snipping back and forth that had marked every step through the temple.

Colette had been oblivious, had not noticed the one-sided competition. Genis had been too scared to really care one way or the other, but considering what he'd seen of the boy's personality he figured that Lloyd had been on the brunt of much teasing after.

He recalled the grave outside, the conversation they'd had over it. He had seen the first 'true' Lloyd in that talk. A thoughtful young man who cared for his family, odd as it was. He had glimpsed at something greater then the childishness he'd endured and had quietly regretted he could not see more of it before he had to leave. Now that the boy- no young man was traveling with him he was not going to quietly endure this childishness, he was not going to watch Lloyd coddle that poisonous pride to his breast and make the same mistakes he had.

"Wake up!"

Lloyd hopped at the vicious note in Kratos' tone. Good, he was more attentive, now to feel out the issue.

"You're daydreaming by the looks of you; we don't have time to wait for you to come back to reality." He pointed to where Raine, Colette, and Genis were going for the door to the far left of the 'crescent'.

"I wasn't daydreaming, I was… thinking…" Lloyd gripped his sheathed sword, and followed behind Kratos.

It was a lie, a lie that was so complete that Lloyd believed it himself. Kratos was glad that the others were out of hearing range; he knew his next comment was going to trigger a nasty outburst, and it was best to keep these things private.

"You were sulking."

"I was not!" Lloyd growled, if he thought that Kratos was going to fight like Genis did throwing accusation and enduring counter accusation he was grossly mistaken.

"Believe as you will. I saw what I saw, let it go Lloyd, you are going to put us in more danger if you do not. None of us would have won that fight by ourselves, and it wasn't a defeat, no one died, so stop telling yourself you could have done better. You did what you needed to do and though it was not with grace or much skill it got the job done."

"Oh gee thanks." Lloyd spat out the comment and it dripped with sarcasm, that sarcasm made the mercenary's eyes narrow. Kratos could almost see this temple turn into that dedicated to the Iselian' ideas of Martel; he could almost see that old moment when they had had this discussion before.

"You said you wanted a new beginning yet you are precariously close to repeating the errors of the past."

At that Lloyd flinched, came back to himself a bit.

"It's just that…"

"You could not have beaten that thing on you own and it hurts. It makes you feel helpless, weak, and those feelings make you grow angry in response." Kratos shrugged off Lloyd's surprised stare, turned only to hide the smile that had fond a home on his lips. "We need to go on, we've wasted enough time in chit chat."

"How do you know all of this, it's like your in my head seeing everything I think!"

"Just think on it, consider it, and when we are out of this place if you wish we can talk, but not now. We have a Chosen to protect, remember?"

Satisfied the mercenary went through the door, and this time –while Lloyd was quiet- it was a more significant silence.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

The room was massive, some powerful giant had once perhaps made a stair and then in a fit of boredom cut it into pieces and scattered it around the room. Red light, red water that was not water, lapped at the stair way with the laziness of water lapping at the earth. But it was not water; it was earth, molten earth. They all backed away from that light, from the horrible heat that made the dessert outside feel cool in comparison. A giant stair jutted from its pool of red, and went beyond that angry light went up into the darkness above their heads.

"That's a long way up; it should make you happy Lloyd you always like high places!" The elf quipped, but his hands were shaking just a bit

"Genis… not now." Lloyd felt his mouth opening, refusing to close as he looked up. "This doesn't make any sense, the cave was all cramped and stuff and it couldn't go up this high without breaking surface. It's impossible."

"How is it impossible Lloyd?" Raine asked, her eyes scanning the walls as if she was looking for writing on an ancient civilization and was disappointed by their universal soot covered blackness.

"I know caves... or mines. Dad taught me mine work right along blacksmithing so I'd know where and how to get materials if I needed to. I know I don't know too much but what I do know is that something this big's gotta be visible from above, but it isn't!"

"Magic, a spell maybe?" Colette offered, frowning at how high the ceiling was and trying to find the alter where her father waited for her.

"You mean an angel spell thingie?"

"They're called miracles Lloyd." Raine sighed, "What have you spent the last five years learning?"

"Well I learned Art and PE and.. umm how to sleep standing up."

"Nothing, nothing, nothing… Raine sighed at the walls, ran a finger down the soot then frowned as she realized there was another layer under the first.

They needed to get going before Raine decided it was time to make soot the main enemy of her life and set them all too scrubbing walls in hopes of finding an ancient hieroglyph underneath.

"Something wrong Professor?" Colette asked, coming from whatever thoughts she held so close to her.

"Yes, his soot that's what's won, writings of the ancients might be underneath but I can't see them because of this blasted.."

"Genis, she' going into Ruin mode again! Fix it!" Lloyd gasped in terror more fitting to a more dire situation. It would have better fitted it a hundred of those toothed boxes materialized in the room with them rather then the elf's mania surfacing… Kratos looked to Raine and decided that though Lloyd's fear was a little over exaggerated but it was not as sever an exaggeration as he first thought.

"With what?" Genis hissed, panicking as well. "I don't know how to!"

"Look professor! Is this the hieroglyph that you were looking for?"

Kratos could have elevated Colette to a level beyond the Gods for that alone.

"What is it dear?" Riane turned with hungry eyes to where the child was pointing, at the side of the stair beyond their little platform, and she nearly swooned when she saw the runes and the candle inside. "Oh good work Colette, I'll make an archeologist out of you yet!"

"Thanks professor!" Colette smiled, happy just to help. "It's in Angelic; can I read it, pretty please?"

"Of course," Raine was all smiles, and perhaps both females had forgotten that no one should have been able to read angelic.

"It says, "A phoenixes feather will show the path to heaven."" The all frowned and then Colette said the thing that seemed to be on everyone elses mind. "Professor, what's a phoenix?"

"I… I've heard of them in the ancient writings but I'm not really sure what they are." Raine smiled slightly. "We've lost so much information during the decline that we probably have all the myths of non-Martel faiths mixed up. I couldn't even hazard a guess to what it is, save some type of bird."

"Why not just light it, with a fireball or something?" Genis asked.

"I guess so, I hope we don't break it.. I tend to break things a lot." Colette blushed and Kratos felt it his turn to speak.

"Chosen, you couldn't break it if you tried; it's too large to conveniently drop."

"But what if I trip!" Colette wailed quietly, "I always break things when I trip by them."

Kratos looked at the girl, the towering stair, and his gaze only said he did no believe that Colette could break it if she tripped on it a thousand times.

"Don't underestimate the power of Colette's trips." Genis said, seeing the look on the mercenary's face. "She broke the school once, fell though the wall and hit one of the foundation beams."

"Oh yeah that was great, we didn't have to go to class for a week it was so cool!"

"Broke… a school…" Kratos was torn between laughter and scorn, until he saw Colette's downcast eyes.

"I didn't mean to, it was an accident, really."

"It's alright Colette, everyone was happy, so it wasn't bad!" Lloyd smiled at the Chosen who shyly smiled back.

"You think?"

"I know, don't worry about it, the professor got a week off to do some research thing she likes to do and we all got to play for a week so it was OK!"

"Thanks Lloyd!"

"No-" he was –what was the saying?- Noishe hugged by Colette. "No problem." He smiled, and that smile said that he liked being hugged by Colette. Kratos saw another talk coming on the horizon, a very long and educational talk about ethics and women.

A high pitched elven voice was humming a very familiar song. Kratos decided to conveniently go over and step on the boy's toes. Genis yalped in pain and Kratos cast him a completely false apologetic glance. Genis read what Kratos was warning him about, and wisely kept his smug song to himself. They obviously had feelings for each other, this journey was going to be rough enough for the obviously growing and maturing affection, so long as he had his way Genis would not add any more difficulties to the situation.

"Genis could you cast your spell? But be very careful of those runes, they are very important!"

Colette smiled encouraging at her young friend, and seemed to have no motivation to leave Lloyd's embrace despite the horrid heat. A slow flush was crawling up the young man's face, he smiled with pleasure but his eyes had a panicked look that all young men finding a woman cuddling to them for the first time wore. Kratos met Lloyd gaze while the elves stuck up an argument about how big the fireball should be. Kratos found himself torn, torn between amusement at the boy's predicament and pity. In the end he settled for neither, allowed the sight of them together like that to stroke old memories.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

The fire spell was cast and the effect was one none of them could have expected. The stair shivered, shook, then slid across the lava lake to connect to the broken off stair way by the platform that the middle door in the dome room would lead to. Lloyd ran out of the room, went to the crescent chamber then went through the central door and informed them of that the second he could see them.

"Does he always do this?" Kratos growled, he sounded very displeased.

Raine smiled, thought of the child that had come to her lessons and the one who was on the platform now. Only a few inches difference of height between them. It was refreshing; no matter where they went or what they did Lloyd would always be his cheerful headache inspiring self.

"Yes, he is. Lloyd, come back here right now!"

"Alright, coming!" Goddess the boy could run fast, he took all of a minute to rejoin them.

"How many times have I told you to not run ahead? What if that box had some how gotten itself back together."

"Then he'd have come in here screaming." Genis said from the outer edge of the platform, his teasing was absent and he seemed distracted.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Lloyd walk over to Genis, frowned a something that was only visible to them. Leaving the comforting wall Raine walked over to the boys and nerved herself to look in the lava. She blinked, the lava was no surprise, but what was was the hand width path that went out into the distance and by the looks of it linked up to another platform of brick.

"I think I see another candle thing over there, but I'm not sure."

Genis squinted and tried to look through steam and fire but could make nothing out. Raine also stared, until her eyes watered, then firmly she grabbed both their arms and pulled them away from the edge. She knew that look on Lloyd's face, he was thinking about walking the path and taking a look.

"No, we will go to the last door and there will be a nice 'safe' path for us to follow, and I will hear nothing of walking through that, it's not safe."

"But it looks so cool over the- ouch!" Lloyd looked up to her with tears in his eyes when her hand withdrew.

"You think walking over a strip over molten lava is 'cool'!" She snapped and he wisely shook his head.

"And if you try." Kratos added in an icy tone obviously hearing the whole conversation. "I will personally knock you senseless when you return." The mercenary's eyes had a fire in them so intense the lava paled in comparison, at that look Lloyd blanched and shook his head with more feeling behind it.

Good, at least the mercenary was supporting her in this and being helpful. She was torn though between gratitude and jealousy. Lloyd listened to the man more readily then her, but then perhaps the fact they were both swordsmen had something to do with it. She chewed on her lower lip, considered that then decided she'd do that bit of thinking later, as it was they had enough to think about.

"We should continue; this trial's not solving itself."

"A trial… humph." Kratos barely put any breath behind the words but then her ears did not sport points for nothing. She turned on him, about ready to demand an explanation of his words but he just ignored her and went through the door. Worried Raine said nothing, only told herself the one truth that she had felt when first laying eyes on the man.

There was something very strange about Kratos Aurion, something very strange indeed.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"I don't like this, it has me worried, that's all I have to say."

"Colette has to go though this trial right?" Lloyd was staring at the thin path.

"Yes," Raine frowned thinking Lloyd was going to thoughtlessly say that Colette should cross the path and light the strange torches.

"Is this part of the trial?"

"I'm not too sure."

"Colette would know best." Genis pointed out and they all turned to her waiting.

Colette frowned at the air, tried to recall what the books and writing said about the trials and if lava paths were part of them then shook her head.

"I… I don't know, they writings say that the trial is given by the angels at the seal, but I don't know what the seal is and I don't see any angels so I just don't know… I'm sorry everyone."

"Don't be." Lloyd unsheathed his sword and let it fall to the ground. "It's not you fault Colette so don't apologize."

"Lloyd what do you think you're doing!"

Ignoring Raine's outburst the adolescent hopped off of the island of stone and landed on the walkway.

"Opening up the road!" He called to them; then lifted a hand so they could all see the bright red ring on his finger. "Kill me after I get back!" He called to Kratos, then began one slow cautious step at a time to put more and more distance between them. Raine clenched her hands, ordered her hands to stay away from her mouth so that she would not start biting her nails. Of all the stupid stunts Lloyd had every pulled this toped them all, and that counted the time he'd climbed up to the top of the school house and run the bell from above.

Raine almost felt her heart stop when Lloyd began wheel his arms around after setting the first touch a flame, and her heart did stop when a gout of fire blasted out of the lava less then a foot away from him. Kratos looked as I he was going to go after him, but then had his hands full as Colette tried to run after the boy. Raine also had a similar problem with Genis, her brother though gave up after a small struggle, clung to her tunic with desperate hands and whimpered in terror. Colette was not so cooperative, and the mercenary had to do something that looked like it hurt a great deal to make Colette stop trying to kill herself.

Somehow he made it; he made it to the other platform and yelled over the fires that he was a little cooked but fine.

"A road's opened up, a real one, it goes under the stair, I can't see where it goes and I can't cross cuz there's a huge flame in the center!"

"You stay right there Lloyd!" Raine yelled, trying to not show how much this stunt had left her shaking. "We'll be by in a bit!"

He only sat, said nothing, but if she could make a guess he was panting in exhaustion.

She ordered her hands to stop shaking. Someone had to take charge of the situation. Someone had to take care of this. And that would be her, she still did not trust the mercenary, not with the lives of the children at sake. She was the elder, the mentor, it was her responsibility. She rapped her staff against the stone to get their attention.

"We aren't helping him by standing here, we need to go to the first room we entered and see if that road opened up for that side."

She then swept out of the room, confident that they were going to follow.

The first room did have a road, did have a more acceptable path but it was not wide enough for more then one person to comfortably walk it. And it was standing over a writhing mass of lava. She paled, gripped her staff and moved to step down onto it. A hand descended on her shoulder, it's grip was a light restraint she could easily shrug of.

"Raine, at ease, there I no way you can light the torches. You said it yourself, "I am a healer, not a magic user" light is not what we need, but fire. I will keep your brother safe but you must trust me this once."

She stiffened a refusal on her lips, she would go with Genis, she could protect him, and she was his sister, and...

"Be logical about this Ms. Sage, we need your powers as a healer, if anything attacks and is of fire that staff is going to be little more then food for it. If you can use my sword I will allow you to go."

He knew, he could see how slender she was, how thin her arms. He could see the calluses on her fingers, a writer's calluses that raised bumps between each digit that manipulated a pen. He knew she could not, and he was being completely reasonable in his offer and logic.

That did nothing for her powerful urge to smack him, to insist that she go. But the words under his words made her pause.

'If you go you both may die'

"Go, before I change my mind."

He nodded, called for Genis. Seeing the boy on his way Kratos hopped down onto the path. He took a few cautious steps forward then turned and helped Genis down. Raine watched; feeling helpless and scared as the mercenary took her little brother's hand and gently lead him down the path. His protective and gentle manner surprised her; she would not have expected that from Kratos. He looked and acted like a man who had perhaps lead a young child around for several years. That thought might have made Raine laughed had the situation been different. Any woman would have been out of her mind to have anything to do with the man! He was attractive, in a dark brooding way, but he was so cold. So… distant, arrogant, sarcastic, and superior, any woman would be mad to consider leaving a child in his care for any length of time. She felt the faintest of touches brush against her hand and clenched her fingers, gently taking Colette's hand in her own.

"Everything's going to be alright dear." Raine whispered, unable to pull her eyes away from the unlikely pair as they went deeper in. Without turning she drew Colette close, held the girl who was shaking. "There going to be alright, don't fear for them."

If only she could believe her words, if only they banished the dread that was building in her

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Last one…" Genis' legs were twitching, Kratos considered picking up the child and carrying him, he would after the spell was done, he decided. Genis could hold out for that much longer. Pulling a mess of silver hair from his eyes the small elf lifted his hands and muttered to words to a spell. A fiery orb appeared in his hand and he threw it, it slammed into the candle and the last length of stair slid into place. With a cry Genis' legs buckled and he looked completely shocked when Kratos bent down and scoped him from the hot floor. He sheathed his sword then baing Genis' head under one muscular arm he held the boy steady with the other. The path that Lloyd had described was before them, the road, it was wide enough for them all to stand side by side and the ever burning fire in that road's center was immense. He watched as it shivered, then slowly shrank down to nothing. Lloyd had yet to notice the fire was gone; he was taking a long draw from his water flask, then with care closed it. He frowned at the stairs, looked at the fires he had set to burning then paled.

Then Kratos too heard it, a soft "caw" that would best come from the throat of a raven, the rustle of wings.

Birds in an underground temple, he then recalled what Lloyd had told them earlier.

"Boy, come!" Lloyd stared at him, at the embers on the road, and then picked himself up as fast as he could. Kratos spent no time in watching Lloyd catch up, but ran with break neck speed back the way he came, they had no time to be careful now. As he ran he could feel a multitude of ember blue eyes bore into him, could hear the cries grow louder.

"Run!" He roared at the two women, knowing his voice would carry over the flames and growing choir of avian voices. "The stairs you must go up the stairs to receive the oracle of this temple!"

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

They stirred, shed off the sleep of a hundred years and opened yes the color of fires hottest hue. The flared their wings, broke out their shells of wood and mana and threw themselves into the air. They then rose; a multitude of sparks, of red stars, against the blackness of the earthen roof. From the walk way behind the fleeing clawed hands rose out of the lava and grabbed the stone. It's orange and red skin steamed as it hit the air, it reached forth with its lone unencumbered arm and pulled itself to the walk way, and the very air around it smoldered. Having no mouth it could not moan, having only one eye it could not see much. It lifted itself off of the floor and it's talon feet seemed to melt over the stones. It was not the feet that were melting however but the stone around it, and molten stone and its skin were so much the same hue even the most astute observer could not tell the difference.

Lifting it's blade of fire in a knightly salute that the fleeing creatures did not see the monster quietly began to follow them.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

She stumbled, a common occurrence on any set of stairs. They however did not have time to stop, even to find their feet. Still hand in hand the elven woman would be sent from her feet along with her pupil, but still she climbed, did not sop though tears of pain smarted in her eyes. She all but dragged Colette behind her, and they half crawled half ran up the stairs. Their mad dash was punctured by an occasional shriek and Raine would bring her staff around and smash it into one of those annoying birds that dove at them. She had lost track of the times she had brought her staff around, was only aware that the wood was more ahs then wood and the iron top was so black as to be indistinguishable from the rest of it.

She could see the platform, she want to sob in relief, the birds seeing their pray about ready to get away wheeled around in a way that even to Raine's inexperienced eye looked like it was going to be a mass dive. The whole flock was going to come all at once and Raine could not knock them all aside, they were going to die and…

They could not die, they would not die! She could hear Lloyd's voice in her mind say that in defiance.

Raine smiled, calm even though her doom may very well be at hand.

"Keep going Colette!" Raine struggled to her feet, told her legs to twitch with fatigue latter. "I'll be right behind you! You must!" She screamed over the fire bird's cries in response to the girl's mouthed 'no'. "You must you are the Chosen, you must go on!"

Colette said nothing more, gave her hand a squeeze then she was gone.

The birds fell around her, dove at her and she lifted both hand's over her head to better call her power. A green light engulfed her, turned the first few bird's aside and she wondered just how long her shell would last and how many of those things there were.

It didn't matter though, right now it didn't matter.

She'd hold them as long as she needed to.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"The professor!" Lloyd gasped his wooden sword in hand was shaking as was he. Kratos had thoughtfully returned his last sword to him when they'd ducked into the room that had housed the box. They'd taken all of ten seconds to wake Genis up, and then run to the stair way. Now the looked up in horror seeing a green orb and what looked to be thirty sparks slamming into it with crazy abandon.

"Sis, we're coming!" Genis cried out, finding strength in his terror for his sister. He ran up the steps, staggered, but even as he ran his fingers were moving in strange patterns. Even as he ran he was trying to caste a spell. Snarling a line of profanities hot enough to make the lava seem cold Kratos tensed, and Lloyd saw a fiery hand grab the edge of the stairs a bit ahead of Genis.

The thing, a nightmare of fire and muscle dragged itself in front of Genis, and then lifted up its sword. And the elf child froze in terror.

Lloyd managed to sprint ahead of the mercenary, than brought his blade around to catch the things one handed swing.

"Genis, go around me, go to Raine!" Lloyd gasped, trying not to think about how his sword was blackening and the power of the swing hand numbed his arms.

"Damn it go ahead, you think this freak's gunna take me down?" Lloyd gasped, praying that Genis would just run already. "Go!"

Genis ducked behind him and the monster, and just in time, the thing lifted a clawed foot and was about to kick Lloyd in the stomach. Lloyd staggered back before the hit connected, pulled a Colette step. He hit the stairs with a moan and looked up in numb fear at the monster that was going to end his life.

Blackness swept in front of him, a bit of black cloth brushed against his face. Soft as a feather it brushed against him and the sound of steel striking… well whatever it was… was the biggest relief in his life.

"You're not going to die boy before we have a nice long chat." Kratos growled, shoving that thing back with pure brute force.

"Thanks…"

Another clang of steel on fire sword.

"Get up boy, this is not nap time."

Lloyd struggled to his feet and laughed.

"Where've I heard 'that' one before?"

Another clang and Kratos ducked and took a step back.

"Hard right!" Lloyd barked, and Katos leapt to the side, Lloyd's practice sword smashed into the beast's eye. It managed to bring its shield around to block the hit, but the mercenary's sword arched through the air and slammed into the things exposed sword arm. Arm and sword hit the stones and the monster stared at them dumbly. It hopped back under the next swing of Kratos' brought its shield of pure fire around and the mercenary staggered back nearly fell off the edge. Lloyd grabbed the older man and together supporting one another they retreated a few steps.

"Are they all like this?" Lloyd gasped, "All the temples this fun?"

Kratos only laughed, and it was a warm laugh that put a little more spirit in the younger swordsman.

"Fun, this is fun for you? God's no wonder you're bored all the time!"

They both backed away from the claws that slashed through the air after them.

"You busy the shield and I'll give him everything this sword's got left in it!" Lloyd crowed, a wide grin on his face, and he would have been shocked any other time to see that same grin on his companion's face, now he wasn't. Friend's fought like that, with smiles and jokes between the thunderous clash of steel on steel.

"You are out of your mind!" Kratos roared over the fires that the beast held around it. "That twig will not take another hit!"

"I'll make it!" Lloyd laughed, he could not stop laughing.

Rolling his eyes Kratos got into position lifted his blade and though it should have been impossible they made it work. And the 'twig' did hold and dripped with yellow fluid that came from the monster's gouged out eye before they were done. Kratos generously kicked the pile of ashes out of the way that the monster turned into in death, and then they both went up the stairs to the seal.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"I call upon shards of the fallen stars, lightning!" Electricity smashed into the last bird and I stiffened and fell to the earth. It drifted away a pile of ashes before it got halfway down.

Raine smiled at Genis, ruffled his hair, but still did not get up. She was shaking; even as she lay down she was shaking. But then so was he, and he was just kneeling. They'd all seen the silver flash of light; they all saw that light and knew that it meant Colette had made it to the top of the stair way and had awakened the pad that would take her to her father.

His head hurt, his hands twitched, and he wanted nothing more then to lie down and sleep. Colette needed them though, they had to go forward.

"Hey, you guys alright!" Genis saw a familiar red tunic and face, then his brain decided to blank and he was sprawled out on the stones.

"Genis, you OK?" A hand was shaking him.

"It's no fair Raine, why's it the dumb swordsmen isn't tired but I am?" He whined like the little kid he really was but never acted.

"Hugely funny," Lloyd mock growled, and Genis felt himself being lifted for the second time today. "Ung man you're too heavy for this Genis!"

"We can remain here, most of the monsters are deceased." Raine's voice was a soft whisper of exhaustion.

"Like hell you are, Colette's waiting for us, all of us, and I'm not letting her down. Kratos can you handle Raine?"

"No problem. Ms. Sage, repress the urge to kill me for this."

Genis and Lloyd and even Raine gapped as Kratos picked up the school teacher with the ease he'd pick up a small child. Kratos shifted the woman around in his grip then carried her up the steps showing no signs of exhaustion for all the fighting and stuff they'd just gone through.

"Remind me to never tick Kratos off." Genis whispered to Lloyd as they climbed up the stairs in the older human's shadow.

"Yeah, I'll do that." Lloyd gulped. "Shit all I want to do is rest and he looks like he can go through the rest of these temples blindfolded."

Kratos only chuckled, clearly hearing what they said and finding it funny for some reason.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"You're alright!" Colette left Raine and hugged Lloyd and Genis.

Lloyd nodded, set Genis down and the elf managed to stand though the look on his face told them all he would be able to do little more then that. Raine was in slightly better shape, leaning on her ruined staff she did not shake so badly.

Everyone almost lost their jaws when Colette hugged Kratos with as much vigor as she hugged everyone else. Kratos stared at the girl, unmoving for a long time in her embrace, than very very meekly hugged her back.

"You need to work on hugs too, you're not very good at them are you?"

"I hardly see myself in the circumstance I would be needing to… embrace anyone."

"hug." Colette corrected with a smile.

"As you will Chosen."

"Like this, see?" She then nearly knocked Lloyd to the floor.

"Yes," Kratos' lips twitched at the young man's panicked expression. "I do."

"You haven't gone to the seal yet?" Lloyd asked, breathing was becoming a little hard due to Colette's tight grip. He wondered what was up with her, but figured she was just nervous. Heck to see his human dad then go on this quest for him, he'd be really nervous!

"No, you said you were coming so I waited."

"Well we're here, so let's see Remi- Rami… Romi… your uh Dad and see what he has to say!"

"Alright!" She smiled at him, then let him go. "I… I'm ready."

"A moment," Kratos stepped forward, laying a restraining hand on Colette's arm. "Let us get your friends some water and take a span to rest. I imagine your… father will give you some instruction so you would also better receive it with a well rested mind."

"But…"

"To my understanding an angle is an eternal being; I imagine a half hour will be of no consequence to one."

"I guess not." Colette looked to everyone; all her friends looked really tired. She nodded, agreed with the mercenary and went back to them. They huddled around the disk, drinking water and just trying to recover a little. Kratos sat apart from them, eyes closed, sword in his lap, a small frown on his face. He absently sipped his water skin but didn't seem to be tasting the water, his mind was somewhere else.

Seeing Colette and the elf sibs talking away about something he scooted over to the man.

"Headache?"

"Yes, from the heat I imagine."

"And the sword fighting, and the puzzle, and that box of death." Lloyd grinned and the man smiled slightly. "I so need a new sword." Lloyd stared at the 'twig' and ran a hand over it.

"A very sad specimen of practice blade." Kratos was staring at him all intently. "Here, take this."

Lloyd gapped at the steel dagger, at the mercenary, and then shook his head.

"No way it's your knife, you keep it."

"You may need it, you can give I back to me once you get a new sword."

"Really I couldn't."

"You're a blacksmith, promise to make me something better in the future and we'll call it even."

"Alright…" Lloyd picked up the blade; the steel was shockingly cool in the hot room.

"You look like you've never held a steel weapon in your life."

"I haven' I mean…" Lloyd flushed. "I make them and sell them sometimes but I've never used anything but my wooden swords."

"Any reason why?" Kratos leaned against a blasted pillar; his eyes were filled with curiosity.

"Temper mainly, I couldn't even take my wooden swords into town until I turned twelve and I started having to. Ivan, Raine tell you about him?"

The mercenary shook his head, Lloyd decided the floor looked like a niceplace to lay down on.

"Total jerk, he'd pick on Genis all the time, say nasty things to Colette, and well I've never hated anyone before except that guy. I mean he'd get other people to hit Genis or him, or hold Genis down so he could do it himself… and I'd always stop him when I could. Ivan started to wear swords when he turned thirteen and well I didn't even see them when I stepped in and… I got hurt, really hurt, and that's when Dad said I could use the wooden swords."

Lloyd shivered, remembering how Ivan had smiled when he stabbed Lloyd, the happiness. He remembered the stitches, how Raine had to seal up the wound, and how she had been screaming at the mayor calling the man's son a murderer. Dad, Dad had almost exploded, had almost gone after the mayor with his bare hands, and the man had drawn a sword on the blacksmith. Lloyd never forgot that look of rage, of pain on his Dad's face at not being able to do anything….

He shoved those memories back as hard as he could.

"Anyway I've been using them since then. Dad tried to teach me but he uses an axe so we didn't get anywhere too fast with that so I tried to learn from the guards… but you know… school and all that."

"Ah…" Kratos tone and face were calm but the slight twitch that ran along his back kind of freaked Lloyd out. He was too tired to move though to the Iselian closed his eyes, decided to ignore it. "It sounds as if you had it a bit rough when you were in Iselia."

"Raised by a dwarf, no one really liked me because of it." Lloyd shrugged the pain away.

"Humans can sometimes be cruel, stupid, and vile creatures Lloyd. It seems as if you've brushed up against those traits in that town."

"I found some cool people though." Lloyd opened his eyes, looked meaningfully at the others and back to the mercenary. "So it wasn't all that bad in the end."

Kratos said nothing, only drew a stone and ran it over the edge of his blade. That sound was really really annoying. Biting his tongue Lloyd closed his eyes and was startled a bit later when a hand coolly shook his shoulder. He had fallen asleep, that's what his scrambled brain told him.

"She wants to get this over with." Kratos said softly, "Come on, wake up, and don't forget the knife."

"Ummm what… yeah, got it…" Lloyd shuffled forward with everyone else, and was aware that the older man was laughing at him with his eyes. Geeze I must look all alert and awake and… And Colette was going for the alter, kneeling down in the stones words in that sot language falling from her lips. Lloyd almost opened his mouth to ask, but Kratos' hand on his fore arm made him stay silent and brought him painfully awake.

"Something's wrong, don't you feel it?"

He did there was a tension, a tapping on the back of his head. And his exosphere, it was sending slight jolts of cold through him. Suddenly the knife in hand seemed like it was going to be really useful and he couldn't say why.

"Easy, don't say anything, we can't distract her, that might make things worse then they are…"

"Colette!" Genis screamed. "Get away from there!" Suddenly the black platform with a marble alter in its center flashed with red light and fire filled the whole alter. The fire growled and trembling Colette stepped back and… tripped.

"Is there a time she doesn't trip!" Kratos snarled in exasperation, his sword was already out of its sheath and he was charging for the growling fire.

Lloyd drew his sword, and since it was already more or less gone anyway. He threw, cast it like a javelin into the flames and something on the other side of that fire yalped. He saw a glimpse of claws and teeth, and the biggest cat he'd ever imagined strolled out from the fire, it's back smoldering with a mane of fire. It looked at him with those dead pit eyes and it's lips curled back showing very impressive teeth. The 'cat' was bigger then two Noishe's in height and he could not even guess the thing's length.

And he'd just ticked it off.

"Oh God…" He paled as it leapt over Colette, and charged him.

He did the first thing that came to mind, he ran and the thing was gaining.

Claws slashed at the air right behind him, slashed at his tunic, he kept running grabbed the pillar he'd been sitting by earlier and used it to throw himself in a different direction. The fire cat plowed through the pillar with it's massive claws, tried to stop. It was like Kratos' sword and stone and it was a thousand times worse. He saw another batch of pillars, a virtual forest of them and wove through them. He was faintly aware of Genis screaming and Raine and Colete running out of the way.

That and a growling cloud of dust as the monster claws slammed through pillars trying to get at him. He scrambled back, pressed against a wall and watched in horror as the thing slowly sheared its way to him. He was going to die, no way Kratos could take the thing out, no way any of them could and… The knife was cold in his hand. And somehow it calmed him.

He lifted the knife, his last weapon, and threw with all his might.

The monster yalped, hopped back, and though he'd put everything he and into the throw the knife was only in by the tip, but where it had gotten caught… It was snagged in the throat, less then an inch in!

"Spread!" A fountain of water blasted up from between the monster's paws, it roared in pain, and the fire around it dimmed.

"The knife!" Lloyd heard himself scream even as he ran and the beast went after him blaming him or both water and sting. "Someone hit the damned knife!"

There were no more pillars, no more sanctuaries, and it was still on his tail. A hiss and the monster growled, turned, and they both were surprised to see Colette catch the chircum she had thrown.

"Leave him alone!"

The monster complied, and charged Colette.

Kratos somehow managed to run in between them and brought his sword across the thing's face. It reared up, roared then brought both of its paws down on Kratos! There was a human cry of pain, the smell of cooked cloth, and a yalp on the monster's part. It bucked and squirmed away from its prey and when it withdrew a very cooked very anger looking mercenary was reveled. Then to Lloyd's horror the older man was swatted aside with a paw. The mercenary hit the stone floor, rolled, and somehow through it all he never released his blade.

Seeing one of its prey down the beast stalked towards the human, its tail twitching as it prepped to pounce.

"No!" Lloyd picked up a large rock and threw it at the monster. "Over here cat!"

Another rock smacked into the beast's head and the ears slicked back.

"Come on mouse breath, over here!"

Another rock connected and it looked like Lloyd was going to get his suicidal wish, the monster turned on him yellow fangs bared.

A soft moan made the beast turn ever so slightly, Kratos opened his eyes and his glare was enough to make the beast take a step back. That was just enough room for the wounded mercenary to work his blade in, grimly the man wrenched his sword side to side even as the beasts blood poured all over him. When Kratos was smashed into a wall due to the swing of another paw he did not get up and his blade fell to the ground with a musical ting.

"Aqua Edge!" Genis shrieked, seeing the monster was turning to Colette. Though the beast sported a huge hole in its throat it was still dangerous. It turned to Genis and with a croak it staggered at wizard.

Gathering the last of his strength Lloyd ran across the room, went to Kratos' side and picked up the man's blood covered sword from the earth. To his horror he saw those eyes open, regard him and they understood. The man tried to get up, and his motions were making his wounds bleed worse.

"Stay down!" He gasped, shivering at the sight of all those wounds.

"No… can… still fight…"

"Like hell you can, damn I stay down!" Kratos wasn't paying attention, but the cat was. Lloyd did the scariest thing in his life. He brought the blade up and smacked it down onto the mercenary's unguarded head. Kratos slumped forward with a soft sight, but even as those eyelids slid shut Lloyd had a feeling that if they both lived through this he was going to be worse then Raine'd by the guy.

And the cat came at him, in its pain and near death state it could not longer think logically and it dragged itself at him. Lifting Kratos' sword Lloyd closed his eyes and prayed. Then thrust it into the wound and the monster shuddered once, then slumped forwards turning into ashes in its death. Before it died Lloyd had seen… had seen a mass of white and he realized in awe what the sword had cut through, through vein, throat and at last through bone Lloyd had thrust Kratos' sword into the thing's back, through the front he'd go to the things' back.

If Kratos could do that then he was dead, deader then dead…

That was his last thought before his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed onto the floor.


	8. variations

To my readers:

Sorry to leave you guys waiting so long, class, ect. has kept me busy. I hope this chapter makes up for the wait, lots of Kratos, so Kratos fans rejoice! I'm enjoying writing the sparing scenes, so expect a lot of them in this fic from here on out. There's another not-iin-game- ceilbration, a little more illaberation on the "code" and a few scenes inspired by a reviewers ccomment on my story DES. Anyways the 'way' the wings appear is significant for later chapters, it's a bit out of game but it links up a little with the DES story line. This chapter spans from the Angelic visitation to the very begining of the Ossa Trail, don't worry they actually will make it to Ossa... sometime in the chapter... it'll happen even if I have to have Kratos tie them on Noishe and drag them there... But be warned the events in Ossa will only be covered in part in this chapter, the other half will be the begining of the next chapter. As always I tweeked the Ossa scene a little, oh and I established a huge part of Colette's character in thie chapter (in reguards to her intellegence). Thanks to everyone who reads and double that thanks to anyone who reviews.

Kasan Soulblade

Reveiwer responses:

MoonCannon: Yeah, Lloyd is dead... Think of the training scene as Kratos payback on Lloyd.

Melody of Shadow: Thanks, I hope you find it worth the wait :)

FallenStarAngel: So I'm not alone in hating those boxes too! I plan on doing all the boxes, the skeleton warriors (though I will need to actually beat the one in Ossa so I can fight the others lol) and every side quest I can fit in this fic. I'm tossing around the idea of having the next box lure Zelos in with ummm pictures that he would really like... maybe have it slurp at his hair like spigettie? Anyway it's just ideas I have floating around that I'm going to try to use but the other characters are a looong way off from joining so it'll have to wait.

As for the Sage sibblings I based that off of myself. I'm a bibliophile(sp) and I imagine I'd fall for the box's ploy myself.

Thanks for your comments, and lots of added on scenes in this chapter, enjoy.

GameCubeGirl1: I don't start exactly where they wake up (I did that to avoid having to write down Remiel's speach word for word) so you wont see exactly what happens, but there should be enough Lloyd and Kratos interaction to please you.

MizzDarkness: He is... Kratos is that old... ouch I really need to find my handbook if I missed something that obvious... Yeah you aren't the only one asking for an update, not that I mind or anything, I'm going to try to get another chapter up before the second half of my summer classes start up, I haven't exactly found the right wavelength with my writing yet so it's going along a little slower then I'd like it to.

This may surprise you (then again it may not) I have detailed notes for all of the regeneration journey and some sketchy ones for the stuff that happens after. I also have all of the scenes with the final boss and the games ending... plus a 'true' ending that isn't as open ended. If I have time I may write a post game story concerning a prophecy that I'm going to be talking about in the River fiction(I haven't gotten around to updating that fic so it's not on this site yet) ... So it's going to got beyond the scope of the game (as far as I can get away with anyways) So no fears there is more to come.

InuKratosStan: Yeah I don't like annominous reviews, mainly because if a reveiwer asks a question that I can't answer without spoiling the game I can e-mail them the answer. Don't worry about the romance, it will be a little mushy, but not so much as I've seen in other fics. I am a very strong believer in realistic romance/love stories though I amdit the sweetness of both Colette and Lloyd will make clinging to that realism a little harder. They will have a full fleashed out relasionship, they wont just blindly dote on each other, and there will be a full three demension to thier relationship (ups and downs) ect. At least that's how I have it planned, you can tell me how I did when I'm done with the fic. :)

StarRibbon: NO it will NOT be a Kratos Raine fic... Kratos is far too... Damn can't go into that it will spoil the story. Let's just say that due to Kratos' history there is no way he is going to court someone. People, even those that hate each other can admire there foes physically, though that example is a little extream for Kratos and Raine's example... I think the terms of thier relationship will be a grudging friendship, or aquantinceship, and nothing more then that.

PaygeV: Read StarRibbon's review to know my stance on Kratos Rainve fics... And thank you for the praise, it all comes with tons and tons of practice. (That and playing the game so many times I have the synopsis memorized and am trying to fufill my monster list and get every title as ArchNavy would say I need to apply for a new life lol) I'll do my best to keep up the quality.

N1H0nJ1n: Can I say that your pen name is a pain in the tail to type? No offense or anything btw could you tell me in your next review if the "letter" by the H is a zero of a O, I can't tell with this font. Anyways, thank you for the praise, this fic is (in part) an attempt for me to polish up on my fighting scenes, I guess it's working! Thank you for the praise on keeping in the characters canon character... I swear every time I play and see my fic straying outside the bounds of the game I start nibbling my nails wondering if I am being loyal to the original ideas behind the game. It's nice to know I have yet to step too far out of bounds with the characters.

Serrated Darkness: Professional... trust me I'm not that good, check David Eddings, Mercedes Lackey, Maragaret Weis, or RA Salvatore, if you want really good writing! I will e-mail you your answers to your questions -it would spoil it for those not yet finished with the game- if I don't get to you in two days contact me via my e-mail because that means for some reaosn or another my account wont let the letters get through. I will say this however half of my skill comes from reading other peoples work (not those 'how to write books' the only one of those I've actually gained anything from was the "Rivian Codex" which was just a published reme of the authors world building notes) and the last half was from practice and comparing myself to several of my favorite authors.

Ms. Koon(e-mail reviewer): I finally used your "twig" and sword suggestion, thank you it helped make the back bone of this chapter.

Now on with the story!

Angles wings

Chapter 8

The peace of heaven seemed to pool around him much like those blue robes. The only other color besides blue on him was a spring green of his cleric's hat and the length of silk that hung around his shoulders as a symbolic yoke that he bore to better shoulder the burdens of being a guardian. He was her guardian, his golden hair that framed his blue eyes and that warm open face that looked so much like her own. He was still, so still, the only motion that came from him was his swan like wings of ghostly white. He smiled at her and she shyly smiled back and his wings gently fanned them both. His words were soft, those of love spoken between a father and child, yet there was something about his eyes that scared her a little bit. She shook off the feeling, she was unworthy for feeling doubt, fear, she forced those feelings back and waited patently. Light gathered in his hands, cold white light, like sun off of snow. It caught in his sky blue eyes, and he smiled a soft tender smile as that light surrounded him in a halo. She did her best not to squeak as her feet left the floor, as his power, the power of the angels lifted her from the floor. She stood on empty air, his wings brushed against her with every slow flap, and funny as it was they tickled a little bit. He reached out, the sleeve of his robe brushed against her face as his fingers gently traced a cross upon her fore head. Then he bent, kissed her between the eyes.

"I bestow the mark of Cruxis upon you my beloved daughter."

And though it was a whisper, it carried around the room, made the very shadows of the chamber shrink back from his light. That light that reached out with gentle hands and enveloped her. She shivered under his and the aura's touch, it was cold so cold... Was heaven this cold, this place of winter? She saw him frown ever so slightly, and she fought to control her shivers, fought to hide the pain the light was causing, and he smiled at her then.

He released her and with his touch the light disappeared as well. She felt a sharp pain in her back, a sharp stabbing pain that spread ice all through her veins and she gasped in response to these sensations.

She had this moment of disorientation as the world bobbed a bit, as she bobbed a bit in the air and for one second she was confused and a little scared.

Soft wings of pink brushed against his snowy white...

Her wings, those pink wings were hers...

"I await you at the next seal my Colette."

And with one last smile, a shockingly fierce gesture that put images of that cold light in her mind, he disappeared with a rain of white feathers.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

He was made of light and feathers, a ghost with empty eyes. He smiled, brushed his lips against Colette and then came the light. It was supposed to be holy, beautiful, sacred, and he was supposed to be feeling these things. Certainly Raine and Genis looked awed, looked as if they were feeling these things.

Yet he couldn't, no didn't feel that at all. Had the iron tight grip on his arm let go for a second he would have ran and would not have stopped for anything in the world. All he could see was the red, the light, the dream. He shivered, was not ashamed of his fear as he lay in it's grasp. Later he'd think himself a coward, an idiot, not now though. He watched in horror as the white light wrapped around Colette, a horror he could explain and couldn't. He stared at the white light that had bits of all other colors around it's edges, he stared till his eyes watered and his head felt funny, he stared long after Raine and Genis had shielded their eyes and looked away. He wanted to look away but could not, would not abandon Colette, not to the light. Three orbs of soft pink light whispered around where he thought Colette was, all he could see now was the white and a shadow in that light. Faster and faster those orbs of pink flew, unraveling in their flight like balls of string under a cat's paw. The light faded and for one moment the pink light hung about Colette like a mist, then the mist swirled, stirred to a wind that did not touch Colette's clothes, that defied the wing beats of the green clad angel. The mist gathered, turned into six threads that spun around Colette then hesitated around her back. He watched as those threads thickened, they then shivered, twitched, and with a purpose that was unnerving slid through the air to hover an inch above Colette's tunic. His mouth went dry as the ends facing Colette's back thinned, grew sharp points, and the hand on his arm tightened. He managed not to cry out when those points dug into Colette's back, he managed not to get sick as red stained Colette's tunic, but had he not been supported by Kratos he would have collapsed when the pink light began to dig it's way into his oldest friend's flesh like a wolf ripping at it's prey. Then mercifully there was another flash of light and he could see nothing but dots in his vision. When his vision cleared Colette was alone, and with a grace of a feather drifting from the sky she landed on the stone floor. Her wings were the pink of sunset touching clouds, stars seemed to fall between the soft looking feathers. She smiled at them, did not notice the blood, did not seem to feel pain.

He was released, and he managed to make a smile pull on his lips. He was saved from having to say anything though, for Genis with a awe filled gasp ran to Colette and proving true to his blood showered her with questions.

Had they noticed the blood, no... Raine would have shown concern Genis would have signaled him, neither had done so, so they must not have seen the blood. He rubbed his arm, and looked to Kratos, good luck trying to figure what the guy was thinking, Lloyd could not breech the icy walls that covered the man's eyes.

"Thanks..." Lloyd flexed his fingers and hoped the tingling would die down.

Kratos only gave him a long brooding look and nodded. Lloyd watched with concern as Genis and Colette played with those pink wings, Genis laughed, hopping up and down in giddy joy as the wings fanned him and disappeared and reappeared in flashes of soft golden light. Colette, happy to make Genis so happy, smiled. They both were lost in their play, acting like children and had Lloyd not seen the blood he would have probably been right there with Genis. But the horror of what he had seen would not leave him, the horror made him for a short span a distant ghost of himself. So he stayed with Raine and Kratos as their conversation floated around him but did not touch him, and in his minds eye he could see those strands of pink dig into Colette's back like snakes burrowing into the sand. He shivered, and watched his closest friends play and was just grateful for the fact that the wings now did not seem to be hurting Colette, they seemed to be little more then mist and light. But on the other hand they only existed for a few seconds, winking in and out of existence with such speed maybe they did not have the time to turn solid and hurt Colette. He closed his eyes, shivered, and turned to the two adults.

"So then we're headed back to the city?"

"Yes," Raine was giving him a funny look, like she might now be noticing how pale he was. "That's the plan."

"Alright." Lloyd tried to shove his fear and horror down into that place he stuffed all his tears, and managed to do so. A slight smile, less shadowed then the first touched his lips. He asked about the sea, showed some enthusiasm about going by boat, yet both of them were frowning at him. Raine looked like she was going to ask him something Kratos' mouth opened looking like he was going to beat her to it...

He brushed past both adults, called out to Genis and Colette, and with a sigh they ceased their play and they went to the disk, their first step in leaving the temple… And had he been more aware, hadn't been trying to hide from his own thoughts, Lloyd would have heard the muttered word in elvish. He would have seen the slight rolling of Kratos' shoulders that so ill fit their conversation of supplies. Had he been thinking he would have seen the stiff nod on Raine's part, picked up the quick two taps of her staff on the stone and known then that they were talking about something that they did not wish him to know of.

But he didn't see, and didn't really care that Raine began to hover about him with poorly veiled concern. He failed to notice that Kratos picked up his pace and struck up a conversation with Colette about some obscure writ of Martel with a interested zeal so unlike him it would have made Lloyd blink had he seen it. Even Genis didn't see, so wound up by everything that had happened he missed all the hints in his exhaustion.

They had a code, a code within a code. Each person knew only a bit of the code, words for other people, signs for everyone else and each had covert signs for the others that they shared with only one other, but there were some signs Raine had not shared with her pupils, she had spent the long watch with Kratos teaching him some of those signs, had worked out a sketchy communication system between the two of them because both adults knew their charges very well. They knew that Colette _would _hide things and while Lloyd often grumbled about it he too was guilty of doing the same thing. Neither adult was so dense as to miss the shadows that seemed to gather in the brown black eyes of the young swordsman, nor did they miss the small wet lines along Colette's back.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

Cold, so pale, it looked like ice, so cold it could have been part of an ice sculpture. Yet ice did not have a pulse, did not moan softly in pain, nor did it shake under her hands like Colette did. She held Colette, the child's small form rested against her, spasoming as the alien power ran through the fragile Chosen. Colette cried out in pain, a soft little mewing sound, and Raine held the girl tighter, as if in hope her touch would banish the chill. Perhaps it did, Colette sighed, and Raine could feel the shivering stop, could feel it die down. She looked up from her lone watch, she should have been keeping an eye out for bandit and monster but Colette's pained cries had made Raine forsake the world for a moment and hold her student while the pain of becoming an Angel fell upon her.

They were doing this to save the world, that's what she had told her pupils. Colette had said much the same thing, and together saying that line over and over they had managed to sooth Genis' fear, had persuaded Lloyd to swallow his anger. Lloyd had been angry, of all the responses Raine would have expected him anger was not one of them. She could have easily seen him as being paralyzed by fear of or for Colette's sickness, she could see him concerned, by his friends side to help in anyway he could. And yes, he had been all these things, Raine had to pry him away from Colette so that the poor girl could have some privacy. Yet underneath it there had been an anger, a frustration. Lloyd had managed to keep it caged in until Colette and Genis had supposedly fallen asleep, and then he had exploded. One sharp word from Raine had persuaded Lloyd not to yell, but he still did growl his doubts, his anger, at them, at the air, and through it all Colette had slept. Or rather she had faked sleep, for later that night when Colette had been in Raine's care she had cried, had leaned on the professor's orange tunic and cried in pain at Lloyd's total lack of faith.

"_It's wrong, doesn't it feel off, weird, that she has to go through this!"_

"_Lloyd, hush, you'll wake her up!"_

_Gritting his teeth the fiery swordsman in properly colored garb sat, struggled with himself._

"_It's hurting her, her own father's hurting her._

"_It's part of her trial, her test..." Raine said in her most soothing and authoritive tone years of teaching had taught her how to use. "She knew it wasn't going to be easy, that there would be trials. This is one of those trials."_

"_It's not right." The boy huffed, starring at the fire that bathed his face in red._

"_How so?" Raine countered, if she could keep Lloyd focused on the facts instead of his normal wild passion maybe, just maybe, she could see what was wrong and fix it. "How is it any different then a test a parent gives a child?"_

"_Parents don't hurt their children." Lloyd whispered, his face bathed in red light. "That angel hurt Colette..."_

"_Her father." Raine corrected, "he did not hurt her, he merely began the process that will turn Colette into what he is."_

"_Doesn't she have some sort of say in this!" Lloyd snapped, a black gloved hand on his shoulder kept him from standing._

"_What choice is that? Stay as she is or let the world die, those are a very poor set of options. What person has the right to put themselves before the lives of every person that is ever will be before themselves, what kind of person would make the decision that they are more important then future of a world?_

"_It's not right!"_

"_It's reality." Kratos' voice was calm, cold, and that ice in his tone was caught in his eyes. "Ideals do not shape reality Lloyd. No matter how pure the thought, the intent, they do not allow you to escape consequence. I thought Iselia taught you that."_

_Lloyd had flinched and Raine had glared daggers at the man. He ignored them both, shifted around in his numerous bandages, then with a slow and obviously painful effort Kratos set up his blankets. Lloyd said nothing, his eyes were distant seeing none of them. Perhaps he was seeing Iselia in flames perhaps some other horror he had glimpsed at the camp._

_"Kratos, you're right. It is reality, but I still don't like it."_

_"That's the thing about reality, like it or not it is as it will be." The older man sighed, tried to find some comfort under the blankets, and closed his eyes telling them without words he had nothing more to say to them for the night._

_"He's not fully right Lloyd." Raine said to her dejected pupil. It was the first time in Riane's memory that there wasn't a smile or hope in his eyes. She wanted to know suddenly what he had seen and to take that sight away so that the pain on his normaly carefree face would fade away. And yet she couldn't take that pain away, it was part of growing up, they all had to face it sometime. "Ideals wont shield you from the consequence of your actions, but they have guilded some of the heros of Sylvarant like Mithos for example. They kept the ideals and the consequences of those ideals in mind and let them guild them to do acts of great good."_

_"The consequences of ideals... ideals..." Lloyd frowned, then looked up at her with somber brown eyes. "I promise I'll think about it..."_

_"Not tonight though, you need to sleep."_

_"Yes Auntie Sage..." Lloyd grinned at her, bringing back too her mind the young boy who was always late to her class, who would sleep standing with two buckets in his hands. "Wake me for next watch, or if Colette gets sicker or something..."_

_"She's not sick, her body is just adjusting to the angelic transformation."_

_Lloyd gave her a long unbelieving look, and suddenly a thought came to Raine, one she never would have expected._

_"Lloyd, do you believe in any of this, in Martel, in the Angels, the ancient writings?" He shook his head and Raine frowned. "but you've seen Angels, for the Goddess sake your friends with Colette, the Chosen!"_

_"It's what she believes Professor, it's what she, you, and Genis, worship... I don't worship them, I don't have a choice in believing in them now that I've seen them and stuff, but how I feel about... that's different."_

To Colette, whose life was her faith Lloyd's words had hurt her as nothing else could. Sighing Raine stroked Colette's hair, glad that the transformation's more deadly stages were running the tail end of thier course. She was just a little cold now, and the shivering had died an hour ago. The teacher looked up, at the stars, and more improtantly at the moon. A yawn nearly cracked her jaws, and absently she covered it with the back of her hand to spare the world the sight of all her teeth.

"Excuse me," She muttered, habit and manners made her say those words. With a sleepy grin she considered her delima, she could not get up without waking Colette, for the girl had pillowed her head on her mentor's lap and was snuggled against the teacher like a kitten. Yet someone was needed for next watch... Careful, slow, so not to wake the blonde child Raine picked up her staff and stretching both arm and wood she reached futily across the clearing to poke Lloyd. The boy had thoughlessly set himself by her dog, they were a tangle of paws and arms, a mess of fur and hair, convenetly just out of reach. If Lloyd would have favored the color green she would not for the life of her been able to tell where one started and the other ended in that tangle. While Genis and Kratos were in reach it seemed too cruel to wake them, they both were hurt, tired. Yet her only option was napping just a hairs width out of reach. Muttering a word that if she had heard any of her pupils use would have lead to a steady diet of soap for a month Raine snagged her packs with her ash covered staff. The wood served her well enough, she was able to get her personal belongings to her, but then the staff decided it had had enough. It broke with a sickening 'crack' and her items were deposeted into her lap by way of gravity.

Sighing Raine set aside the pieces of the staff that Kratos had all but forced her to buy, and opened her packs. Books on acient language, culture, history both modern and ancient, map she had fogotten to give to the mercenary, some clothes, some female items to deal with moon days, bandages, her notes on monsters, a comb, a packet of blank paper, some charcol sticks wrapped in fabric, a tightly sealed bottle of ink and a well cusioned feather quill pen, ah there it was! Lifting an erasser Raine considered the distance between herself and Lloyd, the classrooms distance was greater, so she had to adjust her aim a bit. She threw and a cloud of white floated around Lloyd. Coughing the boy's eyes snapped open, he looked around with eyes emptry of all intellegence, then seeing her and the erasser at his feet understanding came to him.

"Professor is class over?"

"Lloyd Irving," She whispered, so not to wake the others. "It's your turn for watch."

"Uh wa-" knowledge came, blushing the red clad boy whiped his face free of the chalk. "I'm up I'm up..." He started to scoot away from his dog, when Noishe, still lost in sleep, absently snaked his huge head around and chomped on Lloyd's belt. Or rather that's where he ment to bite down.

Raine winced in sympathy as Lloyd whimpered, then in a very tight and controled voice ordered the dog to let go of his rear. Now totally wake the dog let go of Lloyd with a quiet whine.

"I'll stand watch in a few minuetes." Lloyd opened his packs and after a moment of rumaging fished out a pair of stained pants. "I'll be over there." He pointed to a half totaled wall. Limping, hobling, and whispering several curse words the boy dragged himself away so he could tend to the massive gash in his clothes.

Noishe's liquid brown eyes seemed to overflow with an unspoken appologie, and that gaze followed her oldest pupil out of thier make shift camp.

xxx xxx xxx xxx

Small arms were wraped around his waist, the child clung to him as they rode on the most unlikely of horses. She was sleeping agian, seemed to need sleep a great deal, her head rested on his back, he could feel those long locks slide back and forth across his bare back. Well not so bare, bandages ran around his shoulder like a waterfall of tan, wound around his chest, and there as it cradled his wounds lost it's innocent brown hue. It was brown, a dull red-brown of dried blood but thank the gods not infected blood. He sighed as Colette even in her sleep snuggled against him and the _dog_ at the same time. This was embaressing, ackward, and he would rather have been walking. Raine had been admandament, he was slowing them down, they needed to get to Triet, so he'd just have to be uncomfortable. Genis had not udnerstood why Kratos had not taken this in stride, did not understand why someone could be uncomfortable with Colette, he was too young to comprehend why, but he certainly wasn't letting that ignorence prevent him from teasing the mercenary about it. Lloyd was strangely quiet, had very little to do with the silver and green creature as possible, and Kratos had wondered what fight he had slept through last night. Noishe whinned, padded up to Lloyd oblivious to his two passengers for a time, his ears slicked back in chagrin and his eyes must have been filled with remorse. Lloyd only kept walking, did not turn to acknowledge his pet, and it was then the mercenary spied what had been bothering him. Lloyd walked with a very subtle limp, on reflection he realized Lloyd had been moving a little slow as they took down thier camp and had also ate breakfast with a slowness that ill suited him. Obviously something was wrong. Kratos tapped the furry shoulder, and that massive head perked up a bit.

"Hold for a second Noishe."

"Problem?" Raine called, struggling through the sands to get to them.

"I believe Lloyd is wounded."

Lloyd's face went red, he crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared at his black clad companion.

"Well be in Triet soon so it's not a big deal."

"Yes, Lloyd took a small injury last night... it was an accident and it's something I can't heal." Seeing Kratos' icy glare Raine flushed. "It's somewhere I don't want ot heal alright?"

"You Colette stepped and landed on one of those green short cacti didn't you?" Genis teased.

"No..." Lloyd glared at his friend. "I did not fall on a caqu... whatever they're called."

"Hmmm A fire elemental cooked you in the temple on the rear and we didn't notice?"

"No! Would you let this drop already!"

"Oh I got it, you were bit by a monster!"

Lloyd looked away, his face taking a red tint.

"I don't want to talk about this.

"I'm getting warmer!" They began to walk again while Genis ran through ever monster he could think of asking if that spiece of monster had bit Lloyd on the rear. Suddenly he stopped, stared at Lloyd then at Noishe. Genis' eyes took on a wicked glimer as the knowldege came to him, and it was as if more anumition was handed to him in a ribbon covered basket.

"You got bit on the butt?" Genis crowed, laughing with a chear that contrasted his pale face and earlyer listless state. "By your dog, by Noishe?"

"Ye- I mean no!" Lloyd face nearly matched his tunic.

"Lloyd got bit on the butt!" Genis sang out, as if the sands would be interested in hearing his song. Raine's hand decended, silenced him mid word, and so justice was served. No other songs rang out over the elf lad, but he took delight in whispering it under his breath so that only Lloyd would hear, or huming it quietly. Rolling his eyes Kratos leaned into the green and silver dog. Ths snipping, all in play of course, went on and on. Finally sick and tired of being teased about it Lloyd countered with a story about how Genis had acidently fireball-ed the Mayor's apple tree. Raine decended on them both then at that point, and both youngsters were nursing headaches.

"It wasn't my fault!" Lloyd whinned, rubbing his head. "He was aiming at me and I ducked, what'd I do wrong?"

"You should have been mature enough to stop Genis, or moved your game else where insted of egging him on. Dodging fireballs practice, of all the sophmoric nonsense..."

Raine muttered to herself, rubbed her head as if she was nursing a headache, and took point. Meekly Genis joined her, Lloyd wasn't being as fun any more and saying the same joke over and over again had lost it's charm. So while walking by his sister Kratos could almost hear the small elf thinking up new ways to tease Lloyd and Noishe.

"I was only thirteen, sheesh, she's acting like I did something horrible!" Kratos stared at the boy and sighed, hearing the sound the Iselian groaned. "Oh not you too!"

"After what I saw of you in the temple I will say I am not surprised and leave it at that."

"Thanks... wait that didn't sound like a compliment..."

"It wasn't."

xxx xxx xxx xxx

Underfoot was not the term. Colette had awakened yet was horribly weak. Raine had more or less tied herself to the girls side and Genis' energy pettered out and he too was being supervised by his sister. Lloyd ran around fetching things and he was genuinly helpfull, but he was annoying. Or rather that's what Kratos gathered from the quiet sighs that were coming from the Iselian teacher. Finally she banned them both from the room, sateing it was 'too cramped' and the patients needed air to breath. Cooly closing the door on them Raine gave Lloyd a firm glare that said louder then any words they better not camp outside the door, then there was a soft click. That click of the lock sliding into place seemed like thunder in the silent hall.

"We were just kicked out..." Lloyd could not seem to deal with that thought, and Kratos just sighed.

He reached out, took the young man's shoulder and firmly steared the protesting swordsman out of the hall. They managed the stairs, though it was more of a struggle for Kratos then for Lloyd, and picked thier way to the room. Lloyd staggered to the bed, and with great care lowered himself onto the matress. The older human followed suit with a few soft curses. They both stared at the brick wall on the other side of the room, since there beds were less then five steps away from each other and the window was behind them both there was not even a active view. They both lay in silence, the pain of thier partialy healed wounds was too much to let either sleep.

"I'm bored." Lloyd said after ten minuetes. "I can't sleep, I hurt too much and I'm bored out of my skull."

"As am I." Kratos sighed.

"So what do bored mercenaries do?"

"Wallow in our boredom I guess."

"Ung I'm so bored I'm imagineing the whole wall as a giant hop-skip board and I'm playing myself."

"What side's winning?" Kratos asked, he poked at his bandages which mercefully covered enough of his scars so that no questions were asked, he would change them later tonight he decided.

"I can't tell, I keep forgeting what piece I moved so I have to keep restarting."

Another twnety minuetes passed, Lloyd proceeded to hum every song he had ever heard, hoping with music he could coax himself to sleep. A cunning ploy but all the songs Lloyd seemed to know were lively jigs and religious music. The former was too rousing and the latter was too loud to achieve the goal of making them sleepy.

"I'm out of music." Lloyd announced. "Your turn."

"My turn?" Kratos snorted, closed his eyes. "It is not my turn Lloyd, I am not participating in this foolishness. Just close your eyes, sleep will come eventually."

"Huh OK I guess I can tell myself storys... maybe I'll fall asleep or something. Once upon a time there was a man name Aska who fell in love with a woman who lived on the moon... and her name was Luna? Yeah I think that was the name... Anyways Aska loved Luna but Luna was sick-"

Kratos' had listened to the tale with a mix of humor and annoyence. At least until the name Aska came into it, his hands had clenched with that word. By the time the workds 'Luna was sick' had passed the young man's lips his face was pale, as pale as the moon and he had stiffened. The wounds throbbed due to the motion, set his whole body into painful seizure. He heard Lloyd curse, the young man's voice seemed to drift about him, something about Raine... That brought him back, he stilled his body with iron will and managed to supress his reaction so that it did not set him to shaking.

"I am fine, it's not serious..." The power of his voice and presence was enough to coax Lloyd to forsake his plan of fetching Raine.

"If you say so, but if you have another one I'm going, no matter what you say."

Kratos managed a slight smile, a glib promise that he would not have another fit anytime soon. Then taking a deep breath he closed his eyes, listened to Lloyd limp back to his bed and again seek solace from his pain on the matress. There was little solace for thier pain though, and absolutely none for the old wound Lloyd's innocent story had ripped open. An uncomfortable silence fell between the men, it was punctured by thier breath taken out in soft hisses of pain.

"Alright, are you going to tell me why you had that fit?"

He could have said that it was in his blood. That his mother had had a few and it had passed from her to him. He could have blamed the wounds, the stress. He closed his eyes and told the truth. The half of the truth that he felt would be safe for Lloyd to hear.

"When I was a child my mother would tell me that story, she told me stories over my crib and bed every night until the day she died."

Quiet, now the silentce was not even punctured by pained breath.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean any disrespect."

"Looking back... I can see how she died..." Kratos surpressed another shiver, clenched his teeth so hard they ached. He let the tension in himself drain out like pus from an infected wound. "Continue."

"What!" Lloyd gasped, this time not in pain but total shock. "If it rips you up like that why should I continue?"

"Please... I'd like to hear your version of it." Kratos let out a slow breath, he turned and met those eyes that were so much like his own. "I need to hear it, all of it, and if you know others I would like to hear them as well. It has been a long time since anyone I know has ever told the old tales, and I'd like to hear them again."

"You know, you're the first person who hasn't screamed sac-roo-idge... You know what I'm trying to say... umm"

"Sacrilege?"

"That's it, that's the word, anyways isn't that wierd?"

"Almost the whole of the world believes and revears Martel as thier faith, those stories are the foundation of a totally different faith that has no conection to the Church. Most people would find anything that goes against Martel and her church to be insulting at the very least."

"People can be weird sometimes." Lloyd said, and Kratos let out a rueful laugh.

"And by that look you mean to say I am also wierd." Kratos smiled a small guarded smile that he could feel warm the ice in his eyes.

"You said it, not me."

Both men chuckled, more at ease now that the painfull moment had passed. At Kratos' prompting Lloyd found the thread of his tale and told that story along with a handfull of others. The door cracked open as Lloyd was winding up on a story about how three wind imps would steal the smallest things in all of the world and play with them in the sky. Raine came in and gave the two of them a look of shock, she was not expecting them to be getting on well. Nor was she expecting any tollerance on Kratos' part of Lloyd's endless chatter. As a matter of fact she had half expected to come in to see herself short a pupil.

"It's good to see you two getting on well." Raine commented, the afternoon sunlight was merciless in showing them just how drained she was.

"How's Colette!" Lloyd hopped to his feet, pain forgotten.

"She's fine, she and Genis are sleeping off the effects of my healing spells. I'm going to do what I can for Mr. Aurion then go to bed, and I'd appreciate it if you both left the others alone while I rest. Neither of them are quite up to visitors yet. Now then, luckly for you I can work through the bandages, so we wont need to strip you half naked Kratos." She looked at Lloyd pointedly and the boys with a grimace left the room.

The exam was cool, professional, and given in the most detatched means possible. Raine ordered him to get some sun light, take Lloyd with him, and not to strain himself too much by trying to kill oversized cats by himself. Basically get some exercise to work off the effects of the healing and make sure he kept Lloyd entertained and out of her hair. He sighed, growled that he was not Lloyd's caretaker, and she whirled on him in a manner that indicated he might just be on the recieving end of a Raine Storm. All he did was grip the hilt of his sword and stare at the woman, he waited, and her anger drained out of her swiftly. With half closed eyes she limped out of the room, looking utterly defeated and drained. Kratos said nothing more, merely worked on his tunic and picked his cloak up form where it lay on the floor. His wounds were totally healed, and the mana that ran through him made his head feel as if it were stuffed with cotten. He knew the best cure for that however, this was not the first time he'd had to been speed healed after all. He left the false night of the room, and with a handful of words indicated to Lloyd that they should eat something. Always happy to eat at least three times his weight in food a day Lloyd followed. He had two servings of the lunch, and finished Kratos' portion for him when the mercenary set it aside with it half empty.

"No," Kratos barked, when Lloyd started to go up and try to get his fourth bowlfull. "We will be sparring later so you will be eating nothing else until dinner."

"But..."

Kratos only nerrowed his eyes, and that was enough. Lloyd flinched, sighed, then set the plate aside.

"I'm still hungry." Lloyd groused.

"If you eat anymore you'll be spiting it back up after we are half way through the match. Come on, you mentioned a weapons shop, I for one would like to know where it is."

"Alright, hold up I'm comming."

xxx xxx xxx xxx

"No!" Lloyd gasped at the item in Kratos' hand. "I so could not ever pay you back for..."

"The journey, think of Colette, how can you expect her to remain safe if you throw rocks and use your fists against the monsters we encounter?"

Lloyd knew his mouth was hanging open, and he couldn't close it if he wanted to. It was official, more then official, Kratos was one of the coolest guys ever. With shaking hands he reached out, lifted the sheathed swords from the older man's grasp and hooked them onto his belt. He drew the left one, gave it a practice swing, spun it in his hands like a baton then sheathed it with a flourish. He did the same for the right blade, and fought down a shiver at the rasp of steel sliding into it's scabard. He'd heard that sound a thousand times, had heard the ring hammer on steel, or stone on steel, but he never imagined himself holding a steel sword, or using one.

"A good pick Sir, good for a youngun learning the craft. It's a goodly pair of blades it is, he'll grow with them that he will."

Kratos only stared at the merchent, who decided to shrink back behind his stall. Lifting his new shield and strapping it to his arm the mercenary put down a decent amount of gald on the counter and looked around the small wooden building.

"I will be back tomorrow or the day after to pick up the staff and spiked rings, if they aren't here or complete I will take my money back, and if my money has 'disappeared' I will take payment from you and know my price cuts to the bone."

The man nodded, his face so pale Lloyd half expected the poor guy to fall over dead.

"And if you aren't here I will take the pains to hunt you down..." Kratos tightened his grip on the man's tunic, gave it a slight twist and the man started turning blue. He managed to croak something satisfactory to Kratos' ears, because the mercenary let him go.

"Was that all really necissary?" Lloyd protested, looking back and feeling very guilty for letting Kratos bully the bald weapon smith.

"He tried to pick your pocket, he's lucky I decided gutting him would call too much attention to us. Why do you think I under paid him? He knows I saw what he did and he also knows that not only will I peel off his hide if he tries to short us in any way I will call the authorities onto him. Depending on the councils' mood he could lose his shop, or his hand." Kratos paused, watched a camel and it's accompanying silk merchant walk by with a air of someone who's seen a thousand silk merchants stroll by on wierd creatures every day of his life. "Both most likely, people in the wild areas such as the dessert tend to be a bit brutal when dolling out justice."

"Oh..." Lloyd stared at the massive lumpy creature with it's scrawny legs and wildly wide paws. It had a long face, a rich golden fur covered the whole of it. It's eyes were a dark liquid black that were flat and unfriendly. There was dark skinned person on top of it sat between those lumps, a false waterfall of deep blue hung around him. The tassles that hung like white flecks from an untamed stream contrased the orange and yellow shrounds that wrapped around the man. Kratos coughed, and Lloyd realized he'd been staring at the silk merchant and he in turn was being stared at a few people in the square.

"Trust me, they aren't worth the time, they're vicious tempered, violent, and completely untractable."

"What?"

"The cammel, I would personally stick with your friend Noishe as a form of transportation."

"I wasn't thinking about it..." Lloyd felt his face grow hoter then the rest of him, no mean feet in this weather. "Well not too seriously, but I mean wouldn't riding a camel be cool?"

"If you like saddle sores that are worse then those gained on a horse, then yes."

They walked through the city, seemed to be headed for the main gate.

"Hey why are we leaving?"

"Do you enjoy public humilation?" Kratos' eyes were dark filled with an intensity that made Lloyd wince. As they wandered around outside it seemed as if the old Kratos, the one he hated and had met in Iselia was slowly making a come back. He'd become quiet, withdrawn, and it took nothing short of a poke to make him respond to a question. His words were now totally all lecture, and Lloyd was getting really sick and tired of being treated like a little kid.

"Yeah I guess it would be bad for you if I kicked your tail in front of the town, who'd hire you then?"

Kratos' lip curled just a little in one corner, and he seemed ready to say something. Then like all the times before he stopped himself, and stared at Lloyd intently. Lloyd was getting used to that however, those stares picked up a lot but sometimes they told a lot too. So Lloyd met that gaze, and he was a bit worried when he saw something like humor in those eyes. And it was a humor that did not touch the man's face, it was not a warm humor, but one of ice and as sharp as steel.

xxx xxx xxx xxx

Sand boiled around him as a cloud, covered his already dusty clothes in a new layer of tan. He groaned, picked himself up from the earth and looked down at himself. He was covered, head to toe in sand, his dark red shirt was fadded, his pants a ghost of themselves. He could have layn against the scalding sands, could have blended in with them by now he was so dusty. He cradled his bruised arm, Kratos had disarmed him on the first pass told him what he was doing wrong and when Lloyd had made the same mistake firmly smacked him on the wrist with the flat of his sword. Lloyd had been smacked several times in various places. Once for over extending his thrust, another time for not hopping out of the way of Kratos' blade. The fight was at first half chase half fight, then as Lloyd ran out of energy for that they now stalked each other. He felt like his weapons were feelers, looking, poking, proding at Kratos' defenses trying to get through the wall of shield and blade. Kratos had been silent, besides giving instruction and correcting Lloyd's grip and stance Kratos had said nothing through what to him was just an exercise.

This was just an exercise, a sparring match and here he was tossing Lloyd around like a doll!

Still everytime he fell he got up, determined to do a little better, to last a little longer. He didn't whine or complain, though he did hurt in several places and was tired didn't say a word. He did do a lot of panting however, and did utter a few curses when Kratos hit a spot that he'd smacked before.

With a wince he found his feet, nothing was broke so he went at it again.

He slashed with his right sword, Kratos caught the attack with his shield, shoved against the blade with the metal plate strapped to his arm and sent it wide then. Seeing an opening Lloyd slashed with his left sword, a blow that would have made a thin line agianst the mercenary's belly. That sword was caught and rang out against the steel of Kratos' own sword. The merceanry held him like that, locked both of his arms in mid swing for a long moment to let Lloyd see what he was doing wrong, then with a growl shoved with both his arm. The sudden move made Lloyd's arms go wide, spread out, and without his sword at center he coud not block and if it was a real fight Kratos could have thrust his own sword into Lloyd's exposed body. He saw that, knew that, and perhaps seeing that knowledge in his student's eyes Kratos did not deliver a stinging swipe or bowl him over with his shield as he had before.

Or perhaps he saw what was going to happen.

Lloyd staggered a step back, it was on the tip of his tounge to ask what he did wrong but his legs gave a twitch. He took a step back to steady himself, and slipped in the sands.

This time Lloyd did not get up, he just lay and wallowed in his pain and panted. Enough, he decided, was enough. He'd been out here for hours getting tossed this way and that and was tired of it. He cracked an eye open, stared at the black boots with there dull blue buckles that were highlighted with red in the falling sun's last light.

"Enough," He croaked. "You win, you can sweep the floor with me blindfolded, I give. I don't know anything about swordsmanship, please don't kick me while I'm down."

Kratos said nothing, only stood over him. In concern, worry, smugness? Lloyd had no clue, he felt like he'd been on the bad end of a fight with Ivan and was expecting much the same treatment he got from the Mayor's son when he lost. He got nothing, Kratos said nothing, did nothing, except stare of course. Lloyd could feel his skin being pealed away by those intense eyes, could almost imagine Kratos digging in deeper looking at something below that, something that was the core of him. Lloyd found his feet, told his legs to twitch in thier own time and braved himself up to bend down and taking his swords from the sand. Kratos stooped down, picked up his swords and rolled the hilts over in his hands, a slight touch of his fingers and they turned over so that he was holding the cross bar of the hilt yet offering Lloyd the grip of the weapon. Surprised the Iselian took the swords from Kratos, and with much more reverence then he had shown on first recieving them slid them into thier respective sheaths.

Kratos only nodded, turned and began to walk back to Triet. He turned halfway down the hill, looked up at him and said one word, and in that word there was a world of meaning, of possibility, and depth.

"Tomorrow?"

Lloyd only could manage to nod, could he do this tomorrow, would he physically be up to it? He didn't know the answers, but there was something there, a need that he could all but feel in Kratos and in himself. It was that need that he nodded to. Seeing the gesture Kratos returned the nod then continued down the hill, back to the city. After a moment, when he lost sight of the mercenary's black clad form in the building shadows of night he too began the long walk that would lead him back to the others.

xxx xxx xxx xxx

He broke history that day, popping out of bed before sunrise. Snatching the room's sole candle Lloyd used the sorcerers ring to light it. He'd been up well past midnight adding to the last touched of the Professor's present, had slept for all of four hours. Luckly for him his room mate slept through all the frantic touch up carving. Now he was up, far too excited to sleep, he was just like a little kid during the autumn feast and gift exchange festival. That excitement made him restless, antsy, and he had the good sense to know that staying in the room with someone who was sleeping while he was antsy was not a good thing. Candle in hand to light the pre-dawn gloom he fumbled open his packs, fished out both of Raine's presents and Colette's gift. It was broken, the fine metle chain had been bent and the wooden centerpiece had a long jagged break that ran down it's center. He couldn't do anything for the chain yet, but he could remake the wooden part. Tucking the presents under his arm he stuck the hilt of his carving knife between his teeth, and with his other hand held candle and key. it took effort but he managed to slip out of the room without waking Kratos up. The inn was silent, no lights shone from under the cracks of the doors he passed. Shadows and furniture haunted the hall like dark ghosts, and he was acutely aware of how loud every foot fall was. He felt alone, though he knew everyone else was in thier rooms sleeping. Even the cook, who had to wake before everyone else to make breakfast for the help and guests was not up. By the candle light he navigated the empty halls, came to the main room and nearly tripped on the stupid thrown rug in the center of the room. Muttering a curse he kicked the rug, went to the door, and fumbled the key into the lock. There was a click, and the front door swung open under his touch. All the guests were given a key to slip in and out of the inn during all hours, a nessecity because the out house was outside. It wasn't the privys he was going to however,he was paying a visit to his oldest friend, to the one who he could alway go to anytime day or night, for any reason. Nightmare or joy, or childish whim, Lloyd was always welcome though he occasionaly grumbled at his visitor. Lloyd knew that he ment nothing by those grumbles. Anyways it wasn't totally pleasure he was making the visit for, it was a bit buisness too.

Blowing out the candle Lloyd slipped the stick of soft wax into his pocket, then thoughtfull locked the door behind him. He padded up the stairs and spent a moment admiring the stars and how thier light and the nights shadows turned the sands around him a soft violet. A few of the buildings around him sported soft golden eyes, some having lashes of soft fabric, other empty, and others still sporting siloettes of some lone person sitting in front of the glass. Pleased he wasn't crazy for waking up this early, after all ther people were up too, Lloyd picked his way across the sands to a familer squat yet oversized wooden boxes. One of the boxes guests glared at him, it's long gold furry face was as unfriendly as unfreindly got. Recalling Kratos' story about camel's spitting Lloyd hastily went around that pen, he walked along the handful of pens, annoying camels and horses, at least until he came to the stall that had not been Noishe's "room" last night.

"Moved you again huh Noshy?"

One green tip poked up, it was joined by another and a green tipped silver tail that wagged like nuts. There was a quiet whine and Noishe rose his head, first came the jagged looking ears that were as white as Remiel's wings save their bright green ends, then came that silver head with that rouge tuft of spring leaf hue.

"I told them to leave you alone, that you wouldn't bother any of the other guest's animals, but no one listens to me, sorry Noshy. I still can't get anyone else to believe that you're special, for a dog... You know what I mean."

Noishe bobbed up and down to convey that he more then understood, then cocked his head to the side seeing the small whistle in Lloyd's hand.

"Raines present, your present, the favors, remember?"

Noishe scruntched up his face, causeing his lips to curl. Most people would have thought Noishe was growling, or snarling but the mane didn't prick up, so it ment that his old friend was just thinking hard. It wasn't too unlike Lloyd's thinking face really. After a span Noishe barked, indicated that he remembered, then gave him a long questioning look.

"You wont mind if I stay here till sun up do you? I need someplace to carve and someone to talk to and well... everyone else is..."

Noishe only drapped his head over the side of the pen and pulled the slide bolt with his teeth. A small tap with a paw and the door swung open.

"Thanks Noshy!"

A dog couldn't smile, Riane said it was impossible, but Lloyd knew looking at Noishe's curled snout and lolled out tounge that Raine was wrong about that.

Curling up besides his dog, doing as he had done almost every night or morning of his life Lloyd leaned back into that furry back and picking up his knife went to work on his carving project.

xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Psst Colette wake up!" Genis hissed. Lloyd had left a note under the elf sibs door with a few symbols that Genis would recognize. At that quiet sound of paper whispering over stone Genis had woken up, Raine had slept through it all. But then she was really tired, still exhasted from healing him and Colette and Kratos. He waited as long as he could, then slipped to Colette's room and was now whispering under the door frame hoping she'd wake up. He slipped the paper back and forth to make racket in her room and maybe that's what did it. He wasn't too sure, because Colette opened the door and bonked him on the head with it by accident.

"Oww..." Rubbing his head the wizard smiled and waved Colette's appologie away.

"Genis, why are you up so early?"

"It's Raine's birthday remember?"

"Oh the Professor's birthday!" Colette smiled, she seemed OK but that didn't mean much of anything because she was so good about hiding when she felt sick. She was so good in fact that she fooled everyone on a regular basis. Still the excitement and happiness seemed unstrained and that was normally a good hint that Colette was feeling better. "Have you started making the cake?"

"I need some help..." Genis felt himself turning red. "I can't get to the flour, it's on the top shelf and I'm a little scared to get it actually..."

"Don't worry Genis, I'll help." Taking his hand in her own she began to lead him to the kitchen.

xxx xxx xxx xxx

Making her way down the stairs Raine Sage was surprised to see a knot of people hovering around the kitchen. She was garbed in her customary black pants and white tunic. Her jacket of rich orange and black highlights hung about her, rustled with every step, yet though it was early that quiet sound was drowned out by the murmurr of voices.

"Would you believe the Chosen is making breakfast for everyone!"

"And that table, it's got that cursed demon dog growling at everyone!"

"Kicked the cheif out of the kitchen..."

"That doesn't seem right, no ones' there but that short little silver haired fellow!"

"No I saw a swordsman inside too it's so chaotic!"

Groaning Raine realized exactly what was going on. The three had gotten themselves in trouble already and the cheif must of been making them work under him to pay off damages. Still it was strange, she should have heard either an explosion or Lloyd's plantive whines stating he didn't mean to stab the 'insert valuble object here', that he was just showing off and the object got in the way... She fought her way past the crouds and came on a sight that left her speachless. Colette with an apron of frilly pink around her form was running back and forth paper in hand taking customer's orders. The 'demon dog', was none other then Noishe, and he was sprawled out on a long table by the window, one of the beter more out of the way tables too and for all intents and purposes was taking a nap in the sunshine. There was a swordsman running around, his steel blades still strapped to his side clapped noisily as he ran from table to table with plates and bowls and fufilling those orders. And a very familier voice rang out from the kitchen.

"No no... That's too much pepper, give me that! Ung for a human who's paid to cook you can't cook very well. Out, out before I fireball you! Help Lloyd serve the food!"

A man in white ran away from the kitchen and those spikes of silver hair that poked out from the behind the counter bobbed off in the direction of the stove, Raine could almost imagine the annoyed grumbling. Suddenly she was not alone, the mercenary bulled his way through the knot of customers to stare in shock as his 'client' wandered amonst total strangers asking what they wanted for breakfast, rattling off the menu, and gleefully skipping off to leave more notes for Lloyd and Genis to paw through.

"Happy birthday Professor!" Colette chirped spoting her first. At her call Noishe perked up both his ears and cracked open an eye. Spoting her he flowed down from the table, every motion filled with purpose. She was then knocked off her feet and given a Noishe birthday face lick.

"What in the God's name is this?" Kratos managed, staring at the chaos of breakfast rush.

"Noishe, off I can't breath..."

With a councilary whine Noishe hopped off of the slender woman, and sat by her his tail slapping against the stone floor.

"Surprise!" Lloyd smiled, forsaking the customers. "We made you a cake but to use the oven we had to agree to make breakfast for everyone in the inn at least that's what the cheif said so..."

"Lloyd, the customers!" Genis hollered over the clatter of cockery and fire of the stove.

"Sorry, I'll tell you guys later, busy!"

With that he left the baffled adults, and Noishe firmly took Raine's sleeve in hand- er mouth- and guilded the woman to the table he had held for them. There on the table was an assortment of very strange items. Two books were wrapped in dyed parchment, a long slip of wood which sported several small notches and a slip of ribon woven in one of those notches, there was also mess of ribbons and string made into a symbol of the Goddess Martel. Lastly, right by her left hand lay a silver dog whistle that gleamed in the sun's light, it winked at her, the gesture mimiced by the huge dog that sat besides her. With a happy sigh Noishe plopped his head into her lap, and conveintly kept her from moving and pinning one of the children down and demanding an explaination for all of this.

xxx xxx xxx xxx

A cake covered in dark brown frosting, with an apple smile face stared up at her. She in turn stared at it and the three cheerful eyes of her students.

"You went through all this trouble for me?" Riane could feel her throat clog with tears.

"It wasn't a trouble at all!" Lloyd smiled at her. "You know how much I love carving, and a book mark was somehthing I've never carved before so it was just fun for me!"

"And I know you'd love those books on anchient languages!" Genis chimed in.

"But the whistle, no one explained that." She looked to the small silver item with curiosity.

"Oh Lloyd gave me that one year, it was only good for five calls though. You were lucky that Lloyd gave you twenty." Genis smiled. "Those five though they were good. Can I use it Lloyd, just to show her how it works?"

"Alright, go ahead." Lloyd was looking to the cake now, probably wondering when the Professor was going to take the first slice so he could take the second, and third slice for himself.

"I works like this!" Genis blew on it, and no sound came out, at least none that they could hear.

Noishe ghosted out of the empty kitchen, the whole dinning area was empty save for a surly chief who was having to clean up after the youngesters cooking. Still he'd never had so many customers so it seemed he was content to keep his mutterings to himself. He'd hung a sign stating that lunch would be ready in two hours and was now at work and endured having the massive dog follow him around puppy eyeing him for a treat. At the sound of the whistle though Nosihe left the man alone and padded up to Genis.

"This is just a practice round Noishe." Lloyd informed the huge dog, "so it doesn't count."

Noishe whinned, then turned to Genis and waited.

"Hmmm OK I got it. Fetch me my journal, a charcol piece for writing, and my book on the history of Triet."

"Bark!" Noishe went out of the room and they could all hear him hopping up the steps.

"Genis Nosihe can't..."

"Shh just wait Professor, Noishe'll surprise you." Lloyd grinned.

And a few moments later Noishe did return with the history book banalced on his head supported by his massive ears. On his second return trip he held in his teeth Genis' journal and the charcol piece had been jammed between the pages of the book. There wasn't so much as a drop of drool, and none of the pages were even scratched by the teeth.

"You know what's really fun though Sis, asking Noishe to fetch Lloyd, it's hilarious!"

"Why did you have to tell her that!"

"Because it's funny to watch and she should know about it!"

"Fetching Lloyd? I'll have to try that sometime." Raine siad, pocketed the whistle and made a point to ignore Lloyd's groan. "So what are we going to do today?"

"Well," Colette smiled, at her teacher. "Because it's your birthday why don't you decide Professor?"

She could feel Kratos' eyes on her, could almost here the man say that they needed to move on, time was wasting. A smile curled Raine's lips as she decided what should be done today.

"Colette, Genis could you draw up a list of what food and suplies we need, give it to Kratos and we'll be on our way."

"Should we pack Raine?"

"No," Raines grin curled into a full fledged smile. "We'll be in Triet for the day brousing the shops, but since Mr. Aurion finds it is so abhorent I imagine he will be grateful for the opratunity to do something _practical. _Oh and Lloyd gather all the laundry, you do know how to do laundry don't you Kratos?"

The mercenary made a strangled noise, as if he was about to protest.

"It's the Professor's birthday, and on birthdays were all supposed to do nice stuff! I bet Kratos doesn't mind one bit!" Colette chirped.

Kratos gave Raine a long flat look, he looked as if he was going to say something, struggled with himself, then with a sigh fell silent.

"All the laundry Professor?" Lloyd had a hesitant look, after all Raine had all but ordered him to fetch all of the girl's clothes.

"Lloyd a dress isn't going to grow teeth and bite you." Raine rolled her eyes at Lloyd's continued hesitance. "Oh sweet Martel I'll deal with sorting Colette clothing as well as mine, now scoot."

With a muttered. "A box grew teeth who's to say a dress wont." Lloyd darted off to do as ordered.

"Now before Lloyd gets back and eats half of the cake let's take our slices first."

"I knew there was a reason you sent him off!" Genis smiled, handed her the knife.

"Now just out of curiosity, what kind of cake is this?"

"Butter yellow cake with chocolate frosting with apple slices!" Colette informed her. "Genis said you liked the butter yellow cake, Lloyd says every cake should have chocolate on it, and I know you love apples so..."

"It sounds marviolous." Raine said, privatly wondering how long they had sat and argued before one of them said they should just do a little bit of everything and hope it tured out alright. "Genis could you bring the plates?"

xxx xxx xxx xxx

"I missed the cake?" It was almost a howl of anguish.

"Not all of it..." Colette meekly offered him the plate that housed the last skinny slice of cake. "I've never seen Genis eat so much cake, and he's been acting kind of funny since."

"Suger rush." Kratos growled, stuffing the last of the clothes Raine brought him into a basket. "She deserves it she should have reined him in sooner, now he's going to be hyper all day."

With a grunt the mercenary lifted the over flowing basket, and the soap decided to slide over the mountain of clothes and fall to the tiled floor of thier room. Snarling what was probably a profanity in that language Lloyd had heard Colette use, Kratos dropped the basket and picked up the soap. His face said louder then words that he was going to stick the thing on his knife and put the knife in his basket because the knife was far too heavy to roll out. Lloyd bent down, saved the soap and firmly stuffed it into one of his pants pocket that lay in the basket then rolled the pants into a ball so Kratos would better remember which one it was.

"I should have thought of that..." Kratos glared at the pair of pants, images of impaled soap were probably dancing in his head.

"You're probably just used to doing your clothes, when you do other people's you normally have a harder time keeping an eye on the soap."

"Humph." Kratos glared at the clothes, then slid the long list into his pocket. "I'll say this, never again will I let that woman manipulate me into this position."

"Mumph mum muph um!" Came the response from a chocolate stuffed mouth.

"Chew and swollow, then speak, I can't understand you."

"Next..." There was a gulp as the food half chewed went where it was suposed to go. "Next year get her a present, she wont make you work then." The last half of the slice of cake disappeared. Lloyd stuffed it into his mouth and gleefully chewed it, oblivious to the mercenary's disgust.

"Come on Lloyd let's go!" Seeing her freind was done eating Colette grabbed his sleeve.

"See ya later Kratos." With a smile Lloyd ran off with Colette.

xxx xxx xxx xxx

They came back with ribbons, not just a handful but enough so that his arms were loaded down. He hugged the bundle of fabric in his hands, and considered that things could have been worse. He could have been Noishe, who had so many ribbons woven into his fur that he now sported a false mane of the softest pink, blue, and greens.

"Whine..." Noishe looked like he was suffering. Children had run up to them asking to play with the fluffy lion, had tugged Noishe's tail and asked him to roar. Raine and Colette had found it cute, allowed it to continue and Lloyd dared not say anything. He might of wound up sporting a mane too. Seeing Lloyd's sympathetic gaze Noishe decided to milk his dilemia a little more. "Whiiine!"

"Oh hush, we're almost back." They were almost back to the inn. They had spent the whole day shopping, and it was then Lloyd came to see the most terrorfying sight in his sixteen years. Women shopping, two active, cheerful, woman who haggled over everything. They insisted that everything be "tried on", "tested", and it was Lloyd and Genis who became instant test subjects. "If I see another perfume shop or ribbon shop I'm going to scream."

"Bark!" Noishe sniffed him then sneezed.

"Oh shut up! I know it's bad don't rub it in!"

Raine and Colette went into the inn, wide smiles on thier faces, both pictures of female contentment.

It was all Genis could do to drag one foot in front of the other, his sugar rush had in fact fueled Raine and Colette to new hights of energy and Genis had ran out of suger induced stanama first. Lloyd knew without a doubt that Genis was going straight to bed, as a matter of fact that's all he could think about too. He dropped the ribbons off with the girls and when they asked Noishe to stay Lloyd winced in sympathy. Now armed with even more ribbons and more time on thier hands they both seemed intent to make Noishe into a walking ribbon stand. He left before Colette asked him to stay, throwing Nosihe not to the wolves, but to the girls with only a slight twing of guilt. He made his way to his room, and was surprised to see the mercenary leafing through a book while lying on his bed.

"You know you're going to fall asleep if you read while lying down."

"Unlikely." Kratos turned another page, he looked up from his reading to give the young swordsman a piercing look. "I take it from your state that we wont be sparring."

"I'm up to it...Just let me get this gunk off of me." Lloyd sighed. "Trust me staying here is not safe for either of us."

"How so?" There was no arrogence, only curiosity. It was weird, Kratos was so intellegent and here he was looking to Lloyd to explain something.

"When Noishe runs out of fur their going to be looking for more people to ribbon, at least that's what I know Colette'll do."

"Then being here would most definitly not be wise." Kratos looked just a mite nervious. "I'll meet you outside, and if you aren't at the main gate in fifteen minuetes I'll presume that they have taken you."

"And you'll save me, right?"

"I never siad I'd do that." Kratos closed the book, set it under his pillow. "I'll be waiting." And with that he went to the door. He paused, as if he was going to say something, then drew the soap from a pouch and tossed it in Lloyd's direction. "You'll be needing that if I'm any judge." Then with a whipser of sound, the pad of muffled foot falls, and the soft sigh of a cloak ghosting behind him, Kratos stepped out of Lloyd's range of sight.

xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Don't lock your arm when you thrust." Kratos sighed. "The point isn't to run the whole blade through someone but to put few inches in thier vitals."

"But what if it's something huge, like a dragon or something?"

"Lloyd if you ran into a dragon you would best be served to run, not fight."

"Like at the temple..." Lloyd growled. "I didn't do anything but run from that thing."

"What point is there in standing in a fight you know you can't win? You did the intellegent thing, clearly you were over matched, and your actions spared you pain and probably allowed you to keep your life."

"I ran like a chicken, a coward."

"Don't say those words so lightly, you do not know what true cowardence is." Kratos lifted his blade from it's relaxed position, telling Lloyd without words to expect an attack. The first time they'd done this Kratos had not announced he was going to attack and Lloyd had nursed a small nick in his shoulder because of it. He recalled Kratos' calm and utterly detached reply to Lloyd's loud out burst that Kratos had cheated.

_It's not a game, there are no rules save that the winner lives and the loser dies. Would a foe announce there attack? Only the most stupid of fools would crow out that they are going to kill you, it's the tradmark of a novice swordsman, the arrogent barvo, and both beg for death everytime they anounce thier entrance with such stupidity as a challange or a war cry. Death is silent, still, and of stuff colder then ice, when doling it out one would best be served to folllow death's example._

Lloyd jumped back from the swipe, blocked the mercenary's attempt to bowl him over with a charge and smiled a bit in satisfaction at the ring of sword blocking shield. He skid back a few inches, managed to lock his legs so that the brunt of Kratos' charge was absorbed. Still the man could have kept shoving him back, could have with pure strength bowled him over. Kratos let him know that by his last shove that nearly sent Lloyd's legs out from under him. Yet what could he do? Nothing, there was no there way to counter that move save dodging and everytime he tried that he got smacked with the flat of Kratos' blade because he wasn't fast enough. He had to build up strength, but only time would give him that. Kratos took a few steps back, seemed to nod his ehad as if to agree with Lloyd's thoughts, then came in with a fast overhand slash from his blade. Lifting both his blades in a V Lloyd cuaght the blow, and winced as Kratos smashed his shield into his exposed belly. Winded the novice staggered back. There was a screech as Kratos wrenched his blade free from Lloyd's faultering defense, and he felt the blade hovering by his throat.

"Alright, what did I do wrong now?"

"You held it, only actors hold a pose with thier weapons or remain still so long. Just because a sword is tangled with your blade don't think the other hand's going to remain idle, that could have been a knife not my shield I lashed out with. As a matter of fact most bandits would carry a knife and sword combination rather then the shield and sword style I favor."

"How do you block and move at the same time?"

He was shown how. His habbit of charging straight into something was exposed, though never spoken of. Through defeat after defeat he came to realize that he was messing up because he always came straight at the mercenary. A quick side step after blocking the bulk of Kratos' swings and charges did wonders. Yet it wasn't only swords work he was learning, they talked between the clatter of steel, or rather Kratos asked questions and Lloyd managed a few one word replies. When Lloyd admited he couldn't continue Kratos sheathed his blade, signaling that he agreed with Lloyd's words, and they both say on a long rock panting. Alright Lloyd panted and fanned himself while Kratos took a sip of water and looked out on the golden expanse that was the dessert. Behind them the sun was begining to drift down behind the mountains. They sat in silence, watching threads of gold carried on the winds, pass over from dune to dune. Lloyd took a long pull from his water skin, the place was harsh but beautiful he decided. Still it made him ache, all the gold and brown made him ache for the soft greens of the forest. The young swordsman swallowed his pang of homesickness, shoved it down inside of him and resolved to just enjoy what was before him.

There were no words needed between them, they both remained silent watching the wild beauty of the dessert, each harboring thier own thoughts .

xxx xxx xxx xxx

"After all that sand, grass, even scraggly grass, makes me happy!"

"See what I mean." Genis said to Kratos in a conspiritoy manner. "Easy to please, easy to distract and with the attention span of a fish."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lloyd growled, catching something about a fish and not liking Genis' far too wide eyes.

"Nothing."

Kratos only rolled his eyes and waved at Lloyd as if to say it wasn't important. Muttering something under his breath that if Raine had heard would have garenteed a diet of soap for a year Lloyd leaned against one of the passes dull grey walls and worked off a boot. Rocks clattered out from the young man's shoes and Genis winced. Those rocks looked like they hurt a great deal. Slipping the boot back on Lloyd slipped off the other one and let it pour out a rain of sand and pebbles. The golden sands made a pool of color on the dull grey blue stone path. They had climbed hills of sharp jagged stones, had walked the pathless rock strewn mouth of Ossa trail. Noishe had whinned with every paw step, it seemed as if pouch boots were not enough to protect him from pain, but then after a few moments of climbing everyone was in pain. They all had bruises from the consequences of ill footing, every one's hands were scratched up from having to literally crawl up the steep hills, then of course were the nicks and bruises gained on the long frantic tumbles down the hills.

"It looks like no one's been by to clean up the rubble for a few decades." Raine muttered after a nasty fall. She smiled at Lloyd as the young man helped her to her feet. "Thank you dear. I should probably do something about your left hand, it looks like you've got a nasty cut."

"Eh it's not bad." Lloyd tucked the bleeding hand behind his back and away from Raine's sight. "I'm fine, really."

Kratos sighted, tried to catch sight of the injury as they moved on but was having no luck. After all his 'client' was providing enough problems that he barely had any time for anyone elses. She tripped with appaling regularity. And Raine would have to halt heal the girl, and then they'd move on. Finally, sick and tired of it all Kratos carried the girl in his arms through some of the more tricky patches of ground. Seeing Genis about to say something, and weary of the boy's humor Kratos ordered them to all be silent.

"This section is known for it's lack of stability, we best be silent until we pass it."

"I didn't hear anything about..." Raine began then catching his look fell quiet.

They traveled in merciful silence for a time, and as the path evened out and Lloyd began to perk up as he saw more grass. Deciding it was safe Kratos let Colette walk again.

A half hour later as the path began to gently slope upwords he felt a hand tug on his cloak. He turned, and the Chosen looked at him with a helpless need on her face. For a second he wondered why she didn't talk then remembered.

"It is safe to speak Chosen, we merely must be very quiet, what is the matter?"

He learned to never ask that question of Colette when she wore that expression ever again. Flushing the mercenary called to Raine and took the males off a ways to give them privacy. The woman returned, and Colette was almost as red as Lloyd's tunic, obviously she was very uncomfortable traveling with mostly men, not that he would blame her.

A long span, an uncomfortable span, then Genis and Lloyd aquired a crafty look that made Kratos' blood go cold. He'd seen that look, right before his initiation as a matter of fact...

Soon they took Colette, made a little huddle in the center of the path, and their muffled chatter made him very nervious.

"Goddess Martel don't let those three give me any more grey hairs today, please don't." That of course was Raine.

"Alright, you go first Colette." Lloyd anounced.

The children failed to note the tenseness in both adults. Failed to see Kratos' hand work his sword out a bit and failed to see Raine flex her fingers as if to warm them up for spell casting.

"OK I spy with my little eye..."

Feeling like the prime example of foolishness Kratos sheathed his sword. He listened with tolerant amusement as the children tried to fool each other, but the limited items to list in the path were making the game very hard. It seemed safe enough a past time, so he lagged behind a bit ad Noishe obligingly picked up the pace. They walked side by side, and Kratos discovered that he was in fact very good at the child's game of "I spy eye". He was an expert at allowing his eyes to roam the path ahead, searching for tracks and things subtly wrong, and it only took a small prompt of a hint to make his gaze snap onto the item that one of the children had noticed.

"I spy with my little eyes... something yellow!"

Well that was new, the children had gotten so desperate he'd found himself being the answer to thier game, in one case his hair had been an answer and the other his cape. He looked around and spied the answer. In the shadow of one of the knobly twisted and brittle looking trees was a flower of ghostly white. Bobbing up and down alongside that flower was a buterfly with sunflower pedal hued wings.

"The sun?" Genis asked.

"The flower?" Lloyd pointed to a weed on the other side of the trail.

Colette shook her head.

"This is a tricky one Colette." Raine frowned, lowered her head into her hands and gazed around the clearing trying to see.

Silence stretched on as they all continued to miss the butterfly.

"Oh I got it, your hair!"

"Nope, how can I see that silly?" Colette smiled at Lloyd who didn't seem to have heard the 'silly' comment.

"Like this, see?" Lloyd squashed one of the spikes of his hair down and pulled it forward until it dangled in his eyes. He nearly crossed his eyes trying to confurm that his hair was indeed a rich chestnut hue.

"The answer is the buterfly that is to the Chosen's left."

They all turned on him, all very shocked that he'd offered an answer and for all intent and purposes was now 'playing'. He was even more shocked then them, he had not ment to butt in having dubed his involvement in the game as foolish and disruptive. Indeed it seemed to be that, because they were all staring at him expectantly.

"It's your turn Kratos." Lloyd siad as the silence stretched out for an acward length.

"My.. turn?"

"Yeah, you got it right so you get to pick something!" Colette chirped.

"Ah... I see something green?"

Lloyd smiled when Kratos said that he had gotten it right, that the answer was indeed Noishe.

"Alright, I spy something red."

"Not again!" Genis groaned.

"This one's easy!" Colette smiled.

"What _is_ your obsession with the color red?"

"It's your shirt." The three Iselian's said, and to Lloyd's laugh they knew that they got it all wrong.

"Oh I got it!" Colette walked to a red orb that was attached to a rod that in turn was stuck to the ground. "Is this-"

"Stop!" Barked a cold female voice. They all craned thier necks to see the woman standing on the ledge. He frowned, spoting the short kamodo like garment. It was deep purple, the hue suited a plum, and by the looks was made out of silk. As the woman looked down at them he noted that her black pants and knee high boots that hugged the flesh would have been scandulous in the conservative lands nearby. Which ment she was from somewhere else, from a distant land. Ice threaded his spine as he considered the implications of that outlandish garb and faint accent.

"Oh hello are you lost!"

Kratos sighed, this was the difficulty of traveling with an ignorant innocent child, she presumed everyone was a friend even when the tone made it obvious that the stranger was hostile.

"I am _not_ lost!" Flared the young woman, she lept down from the ledge. Her pink ribbons that were wound around her waist, the over long ends flared out like flase wings. She landed with a grace of an acrobat, absently absorbing the shock of the fall with a half step. He was inpressed with the woman's skill as a tumbler, but kept that private. Slowly he worked his blade loose and took a few steps in the Chosen's direction. It was time yet again to earn his keep it seeemed.

"Is the chosen of mana among you?"

Purple eyes combed the group, settled on Colette. She knew already, so either she was very new at this assasin buisness or making absolutely sure she was getting the right mark.

"Yep, that's me!"

"Prepare to die!"

There was a flash of steel in the woman's hand and Kratos lept between Colette and the would be assassin sword and shield prepped to catch the thrown weapon. The woman did not throw the dagger, only charged. There was a muttered opps behind him, in his haste Kratos had shoved Colette down, and at that familier sound he tensed. There was a screech, metal nearly rusted shut gave way and there was a moment where everything seemed to freeze. Lloyd stood blades half out of thier sheaths one step behind the woman, Genis' fingers wove through the air, and Raine had dropped her packs to unsling her staff. Yet the assassin solved the problem for them by tumbling into the the pit with a wail. She was dedicated, Kratos did have to step aside for the dagger was thrown with very poor skill by the woman as she fell. There was a series of muffled "ouches" a few thuds, and then a long silence. As the children gathered around the pit Kratos picked up the golden hilted knife, admired the two interwined serpents that wre carved onto the hilt. He pocketed it before anyone else could spot it, deciding to ask Raine about it later since she seemed to be the most knowledgable of the various cultures and symbols that those cultures favored. He had a huch that if he showed to Colette the Chosen would have insisted on returning it, and that was not an agrument he wanted to go through with the child.

There conversation fell around him, yet he did not join in, merely observed. Raine gave voice to the thoughts he kept locked behind his teeth, yet still Colette and Genis continued with thier show of sympathy. They were fools all of them... no that was not right, they were idealists, holding onto thier values even as reality (in this case quite literaly) held a knife to them. By Lloyd's reaction it was catchy, and it was only more proof that he had a very long way to go with these children. He would not seem the villan, would offer nothing nor say nothing unless prompted. Let Riane take that place for once.

He kicked at a stone, stared at the hard ground thinking, planing, calculating... Satying here would be foolish, suicidal, the traction was poor and poor footing ment slowed reactions. What little he'd seen of the assasin's motions indicated that being slow was the same as being dead.

"We need to move on, and no playing, it would not be wise to lower out guards with an assassin about."

"You think she's alright then?" Colette asked, her concern made him clench his teeth on several stinging retorts, the first and formost starting out as "Are you stupid she's trying to kill you".

"She'll be back..." Yes those hard eyes made that promise a hundred times over.

As he walked, taking rear guard his mind mulled over something. The child's response. Could part of the angelic transformation be the complete deterioration of survival instinct? He shook his head, not quite beliving it. She was not unresponsive to the world, rather her responses were different. It wasn't arrogence, he could have scared that out of her with a few well worded tales or a sparring session. No, not arrogence, and not 'quite' stupidity. She wasn't dumb, nor was she totally innocent, look at her forays into the pranks that Lloyd and Genis concucted! Even reflecting on it made his stomach writh and brought the stench to Raine's cooking ot his mind. No it was something else... something subtle, different, it made her different from all of them. He frowned, lowered his guard a bit and thought, knowing that now he had an inkling of the idea he should not let it go untill he's chased it down. Her manner was much like that of a childs, he decided, a very young childs. Not knowing fear, not comprehending fear they went out into the world and learned it. They learned to avoid pain, like for example when a child learns the beauty of a fire and reaches for it a firm smack and barked word or a singe gained by the mis-adventure was normally enough to teach them caution. Yet she was not fearless, he had seen her concern, her worry for others.

What was it then?

It was conviction, the bone and blood deep conviction that every person ment good, was capable of good. It wasn't a belief, those changed with time and learning, it was not a thought which was even more flexable then a belief, and it transcended any vow, oath, or moral ever upheld. He was traveling, not with a child, but someone who was pure. Pure of evil intent, thought, and action, she could not would not understand it in others. And not understanding she could not expect or defend against any form of evil...

The weight of that revilation slammed home with a forse of a sword in the gut. It was so strong he stopped, and was aware suddenly of eyes on him. He looked up, the hints of what he had just learned still danced in his eyes, set the shadow within them to shaking... And his own eyes looked back, Lloyd saw and he realized. On some level Lloyd understood as Kratos understood the reality of the situation.

And what a dire reality that was. In a quest filled with evil, dedicated to the downfall of those who are evil incarnet there were dragging a pure child into it. There would be no way to shield her, not totally. And with every exposure of evil, every encounter, it would try her sanity and soul.

So it was decreed, ordered by the Angels, by the Gods of light and justice, that they sacrifice a child for the whole of the world.

Lowering his head, rage, fury, he boiled in his own hatred, it was so strong he could feel if course through his veins along with his blood. And if he could have had one of those who made that decree under his hands for ten seconds...

Those thoughts were dangerous, deadly, he dared not think them!

Yet he did, and could not, would not stop thinking them. Suddenly he was looking forward to the assassin's return. He gripped the hilt of his blade, caressed the handle as he would a lover's hand. Yes he was looking forward to seeing this would be assassin again. Very much so.


	9. Izoold

FallenStarAngel: If you want a more detailed list or something e-mail me, I think I've got time enough to give you some pointers. More Sheena in the later chapters, Izoold was a handful to write, I can't wait to get to PalmaCosta with these characters and see how much I can bend the rules there! Some of my fav. Scenes I've done as practice are there so I'll also get to see how many I can put in! And I understand about comp troubles, class and all it's hard for me to have time to write, and now that I'm gunna have class and work at the same time... Well you'll make do and I will as well. Till next chapter (or email)

Serrated Darkness: I may do a ficlet on Sheena (not romance I've done enough of that genre with my KxA fics) but I do have a twist planned for her summoning, and she will get a larger role in my story then in the game.

GameCubeGirl1: Lot's of links back and forth, though I thought of having someone remember Kratos and Uric I cut that out cuz it was too blantent (had to re-write the whole tavern scene) Ah well that's how it goes, thanks for the well wishing and I'll update when I can.

MissDarkness: Try DES, For Love of My Sister, and all my other fics. When I get these all done I may do some Zelda stuff we'll see.

ESSimeon: I read your profile, sorry to see you go MoonCanon! Well thank you for the praise and I hope you see this.

Meledoy of Shadow: I wrote longer this time mwa ha ha (48 pages)! Try GreyShaw's into the gray fanfic if you want long chapters... dear god one chapter was well over two hundred pages, it took me months to read that fic and it's one of my favorites (Also Jerm's and Zealprofit's work as well 30-40 page chapters were there norm and the shortest pieces were 50 chapters) I'm glad you enjoyed it, I'm writing this as I play, so I have to stop at key points to catch up with my writing/outlining of this fic.

Note to the readers, 

College is tiring, I haven't much energy to update so I'm going to be doing so on a more infrequent bases… hopefully it will only get as bad as to be once a month mass updates but I can't make any promises however.Prepare yourself for a long one! Some Kratos and Lloyd bonding, and a huge insight and resolution that occurs with Kratos. Some Raine and Genis bro-sis development. Colette and Raine pwn a skeleton… Oh and as always a prank by Genis. My stance on what the reactions would be if KratosxRaine were to ever occur in the game(latter chapters will have the adult's response when one of the students blab not this chapter how ever). Hmm this has a few dark parts oh well…

Kasan Soulblade

Chapter 9

There was a howl like a nightmare given breath, a screech, and the wooden wall that covered the abandoned mine fell open. A slender beast, a strange hybrid of human and bird floated out from the mine shaft. Floated was the key word, because from it's torso down it was shriveled, bent, they could see hints of limbs and feathers that wove into a metal ring that surrounded the thing. It made the monster look like a parody of some classic Martel picture, where the angels were surrounded in circles of gold to represent the Devine touch of Heaven. On the lower half of the circle, woven in the metal was feathers and twitching warped length of flesh that were as slender as the rest of the thing. From the torso up it was a white feathered, it's arms were slender, thin, little more then bone and feather. It's neck was long, elongated, almost serpentine in as it wove the around and sized them up. It's long beak was the same ghostly white as the feathers, it snapped open and closed and let out a squawk that was not at all like the screech that they'd heard earlier. It stretched out with a slender hand, the claws were like twigs, brittle looking and slender, they twitched ever so slightly and the slicked back feathers along the beasts sides fanned out, showing their tips to look like they'd been dipped in rust. The things wings, that should have thrust out of the shoulder took the same route as the monster's legs. They thinned, shriveled, and inter wove with the ring of gold that surrounded the thing. Gens could almost feel sorry for it, it looked painful, very painful to live like that, trapped by that circle. 

"Damn it we were almost out of the pass..." Lloyd growled, unsheathing his swords.

"It was to be expected." 

"You're no...not getting away from me!"

Genis broke his gaze away from the monster and it's strangely compelling gestures, and looked at the girl in those weird purple clothes that was running after the beast. They didn't seem to be enemies so she must of been trying to catch up to it or something... He felt a blush rise to his cheeks, didn't she know shirts weren't supposed to be... open like that! Lloyd seemed to be having the same problem, he coughed, adverted his gaze, and she glared daggers at the swordsman. 

"You have some sort of problem with the fact that I'm a woman?"  
"No... I have a problem that you're here to hurt my friends!"

Genis began to tap the ball of his kendama against the sides of the weapon, finding the old rhythm it helped the words of his spell gather in his mind.

"Prepare to die!" The woman pulled open a small box slung to her side and came up holding...

"Paper? Paper cards? Man this has got to be a joke."

"She's acting serious enough, don't under estimate her Lloyd."

There was no other chance for banter. The monster snapped it's claws and pointed at Kratos in a commanding way. Suddenly a gust of wind shot from the things hands and knocked the mercenary off of his feet. Genis had been expecting that though, he chanted the spell as fast as he could...  
"Eternal fury of the sun lend my your flame, Fireball!"

The creature pointed at the orbs of fire, another gust of wing made them flare wildly then go out as if snuffed by a giant's breath.

"What the heck, no fair!"

The creature only turned on him. He looked around desperately for Lloyd, hoping his friend could save him...

"Oh shit!" Lloyd was ducking, weaving, and just blocking the purple clad woman's hands that were clenching the cards in such the manner that they landed on exposed flesh rather then the hand. Genis glimpsed blood on Lloyd's hands and realized that those slips of paper must be more powerful then any of them thought.

Suddenly a shadow loomed over him, those slender claws glinted in the sunlight then game down in a hissing arch. He rose his kendama, gripped the string in one hand and thrust out with the wood and by some fluke of luck managed to catch the monsters\pard sa99 ' blow and block... And was sent flying back from the force behind the swing.

He landed on his back, nursing more bruises then before.

The beast drifted over him, ignored him.

He struggled to his feet, ignoring his hurts. He felt like he was being prodded, forced to get up by something he couldn't make stop jabbing him. Blinking back tears of pain he got up in time to see Raine lift her staff and catch the descending claws. Colette screamed as those claws curled, then those slender looking arms jerked to the side and Raine was thrown aside. With a soft cry Raine slid across to the earth, smashed into a waist high boulder. Her eyes closed, and for all appearances she was napping, partially propped up by that rock. Save for the small trickle of blood that ran the length of a lock of hair and fell to the earth...

"Raine!" Genis shrieked, and the beast turned on him, and suddenly he wasn't scared anymore, it was like he could never be scared again. The claws reached forward, flexed, as if to rip him apart limb by limb. "I wont let you hurt anyone again!" He screamed, he drew a rune in the air, muttered a few words.  
The earth around the beast crunched, shuddered, then split. Sand and pebbles flew in all directions, pelted the monster, which blinked it's eyes as if to clear them from such a puny attack. Then the earth gave a roar, a roar that was echoed by something in the cavern... A slab of earth rose like a fist, slammed into the beast then split sending even more sand and rocks in the air. The monster rose, spun around in it's wild uncontrolled flight. Suddenly Kratos was there, he jumped off the broken jagged earth even as Genis' spell was fading and the bits of rock were melting back into the ground... He jumped up and with a two handed swing knocked the beast down... There was a crunch, like a bug getting stepped on, the first time came when Kratos' blade connected, the second was when the monster smashed into the last shard of earth.

"Go to her!" Kratos needed to say nothing more. Genis and Colette ran to Raine even before the second word was out..

Xxx xxx xxx xxx  
"More then a little paper cut huh?" A card hung in the air, twirled, then she smashed it with the cards in her hand and it flew forward right into his gut, it knocked him back a step, made him grunt in pain.

Refusing to show just how much it hurt Lloyd countered with a swing of his new sword, a line of blue paper flowed out from the woman's sleeve as she mimed the motion of his slash, followed the air where he blade passed thorough, and he could only cut through pieces of paper that turned to water under the edge of his blade. Some how those water papers were so strong that the edge could not get through. Man this was frustrating! His blade's edge was less then an inch away from her and so long as she could tell where he was going to swing -which she had yet to fail in that- his weapon would just slash into another bundle of cards. It was weird, almost like her hand was holding the edge of his sword, carrying it along the path his movement sent it yet pushing it aside.

If she wasn't trying to kill him -or beat him senseless, her attacks reminded him of Raine's smacks more then anything else- it would have been cool but...

She was trying to kill him, she was trying to kill Colette, he had to win this!

She lashed out with her free hand, and he barely managed to catch the blow before it smashed into his face. As a matter of fact his sword was exactly an inch in front of his face... Water dripped around the sword as the edge cut into a card. Suddenly he twirled the hilt... no rolled it ever so slightly, that inch turned into a half inch but now he was pressing the flat against the card. Water continued to leak out of the card like blood from a cut, it dripped down and chilled his hand, marred his reflection in the steel weapon. He only gave her a few seconds to realized they were locked, he could see her shift a little as if to step back. He shoved, put every ounce of weight into that shove and she slid back. 

Her footing went on the rocky ground. She cried out in pain as he knees slammed into the hard earth. Purple hair fell into her eyes as she bowed her head in defeat. Sometime in the course of her fight the ribbon that had bound her hair had came loose and now it flowed around her. She looked up at him, waiting for what? For him to kill her? The idea made him sick, he didn't want to kill anyone! 

"Throw down your umm weapons... and I wont hurt you." 

She stiffened, glared at him, her eyes taking a steely hint.   
"Corrine!"

He managed to think that he just made a mistake before the air above his head seemed to sigh. Then suddenly there was something clawing and biting at his head and face, ripping at his hair... He cursed, forgot about the woman and rolled around trying to knock the whatever it was off. Lloyd howled in pain as small teeth bit into his neck, reached up with his hands to rip the thing off of him.

It hopped off, and he caught a glimpse of yellow, purple... Then a flash of silver streaked across the ground, sent the thing flying.

It howled, there was a flash of smoke and only the woman stood before them, glaring at them with tear filled angry eyes.  
\pard f1"I wont forget this, next time you meet you will die, all of y- ack!" 

She hopped aside to avoid two silver waves that came from equally angry swordsman and a lightning bolt. Snarling something in a language Lloyd had never heard before that sounded like "baka" then she too disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Are you alright?"

He turned so Kratos could see him, his face was literally a bloody mess.

"No.. Ouch.. Stupid racoon..." 

"Don't talk, it will only aggravate the wounds."

"Is everyone..."

"What did I just say?" Kratos did not raise his voice but his tone grew very sharp. Lloyd fell quiet in response. "Raine is coming around, Genis and Colette are with her, and as usual your friend Noishe has run off." Seeing the look of confusion Kratos clarified. "The wind beast that knocked me down attacked your teacher, she is alright, was just knocked out cold, though it was by luck's hand she's still here and not concussed or paralyzed. As it is I've already treated Genis and Raine best to my abilities, I have something in my packs that I can give to help you heal."

A screech rang out from the tunnel that was not wind, the sound caught on the edges of the cavern and echoed back sounding like a corus of demons. It made Lloyd shake, made him want to run. Kratos frowned at the newly revealed tunnel, yet didn't seem at all scared.

"I wonder what that woman in her foolishness awoke... we need to get out of here before whatever that thing is comes out or that woman comes for us again. Izoold's less then a two hour's walk from here and that is the only place that might be safe."

"Might be? Wait what about...?" 

Kratos glared at him and Lloyd was suddenly more scared of the mercenary then the monster in the tunnel. "It's none of our concern, so long as it doesn't bother us we should leave it be." 

Lloyd's eyes held protest enough, though he was too scared of Kratos to actually say something. But that didn't mean he wasn't thinking a number of things, if he had bothered to consult Genis on the matter and ask his opinion the elf would have called them stupid, Colette would have talked him out of it, and Raine would have dubbed his ideas as suicidal. He didn't talk to anyone though, didn't say a word. At first it was because he dared not talk under Kratos' eyes, then it was because he couldn't for the mercenary wound a length of bandage that looped over his head and was tied into a very firm knot at his chin after a few laps around his head.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

A storm nipped at their feet, the sky had greyed so that it was all but indistinguishable from the trail, and winds had howled blending in with the monsters cries. It had followed them down the path, and despite his words Kratos was beginning to wonder if they shouldn't come after the rains had died to tend to the situation. The monster's cry's faded behind them as they passed through the small gate marking Izoold's borders. It was waist high, little more then a surface gesture, because it was well known that the Desian's stuck to the other side of the mountain. The citizens, who were no where to be seen -wisely seeking shelter from the storm he presumed- thought themselves to be safe beyond the impassable Ossa Trail. It was an attitude, an arrogance based on ignorance, that grated on his nerves. He took point, lead them down the mud choked roads and to their weary questions only said he'd been there a time or two before and he knew his way around. He smiled at the old building, it was in decent shape, had not decayed too much since his last visit. He opened the door, and nodded at him companions, the wind's howls were too great for words to be spoken so he didn't waste his breath nor did they. They shuffled in, droplets falling from the edges of their clothes and making puddles at their feet even as they struggled through the massive puddle that was fast overtaking the street. Above him a white bird that looked more like an arch then any avian he'd ever seen was set to flight by the wild gusts. The winds made it spin a wild swirling rocking dance, yet no feather's stirred, no cries save the creek of rope straining against metal. The seagull sign that hung against the same named inn smashed into the side of the wall, strained against the roped that held it to a too short pole that jutted out from the roof. Kratos spared the heavens a glance, they had turned into a universally drear grey color and the looks of it the sky was going to be like that for a day at least. 

"So.. co..cold..." Genis's small frame was shivering, though he had curled up as close to the fire as he dared. The innkeeper looked to say something, was going to give Raine a hard time. Kratos gently put a hand on her shoulder, jerked his head to indicate that she should join her brother and the Chosen in warming up.

"Rooms for my client, myself, and her three companions, and accommodations made for out beast of burden."

"We got a stable out back, but friend I be thinkin' you and your pointy eared tags-along can be goin' outside, now."

"You can think whatever you want." Kratos fingered the hilt of his sword. "Reality though will be quite a different matter."

"Listen friend... With our Desian problems you thinkin' me takin in yer pointy ears is gunna do my business a whole lotta good? It's gunna send me and my business to Hell in a damn nobleman's boat it is. So you, and your friends are staying outside." The man stood, fists clenched.

"I can have my knife in your vitals in less then a heart beat." Kratos whispered, it was a kind of whisper that would not carry far but held a great deal of power and authority to those who did hear it. "So... friend, how will you have it. You\pard f1're life blood on the floor along with your guts now or maybe having to close shop in a few months time."

The man paled, shrank back into his chair.

"I'm glad we understand each other, I want three rooms with a fire place, dinner for five people, and cooked meat for the animal outside." Kratos threw down enough gald to cover his order then joined the others at the fireplace in an attempt to, if nothing else, dry out.  
Xxx xxx xxx xxx

Dinner was bland, the conversation was lively, though not the type he favored. While he didn't mind the speculation... in someways he did. It hit somewhere close, hit a wound that he was ignoring and had been ignoring for forever it seemed. It was fine when he could laugh about it, jump into the middle of it and had someone else there, but now... Now he was alone with the rain slamming into the roof, with nightmares nibbling in him every time he dared close his eyes, and that empty ache inside that throbbed in time with his heart. He couldn't sleep, couldn't think, so he stared into the fire for an hour doing neither of those things. He stood suddenly, paced the room with no fear of waking anyone up because there was no one else there. Kratos had not come back after dinner, was entertaining himself doing what ever mercenaries did when left to there own devices.

He sighed, told himself that he should try to sleep, and laughed quietly as he heard his own thought. He was starting to sound like Raine. Thunder roared outside, made the windows shudder and the flash of lightning that followed made the shadows peal back to revealed the world in a brilliant purple tinged light for a heart beat. Then darkness came, and the rain that had been merely tapping against the roof began to pour down with such force that it threatened drown out the roars of thunder. He closed his eyes, and there was no solace in the dark behind his eyes, only crimson. He began to shake.

"Look at me, I'm shaking like a kid all because of some stupid thunder stor-"

There was another roar, he hopped back, tipped over the chair he had been sitting by. There was no hiding from it, from himself, he was shaking, trembling, so much so he had to sit though ever part of him wanted to run and keep running. Experience taught him what running outside would do, nothing, he'd go into the jaws of the storm and become so frightened that he would freeze like a cornered rabbit. How many times when he was little had he done that? Too many to count, and again would come the lecture about how he should know better, how a little rain and thunder shouldn' t spook him. Yet Dad wasn't here, Raine was, Genis, Colette and Kratos were. How'd he look running like a two year old from his own shadow? He'd just prove Raine and Kratos right, that he wasn't up to this. Shaking he managed to get to the bed, and not bothering with the blankets, he lay down and stared at the ceiling, ordered himself to stop being such a baby and pull himself together.

The shadows writhed, seemed to take flight from the storm's screaming light. His hands clenched as he clenched down on the impulse to run, to keep running. Gods he needed to go to Noishe yet he couldn't, he'd have to go outside and he couldn't face that... Not alone. And what if he were to ask someone to go outside with him? He rolled away from the ceiling, stared at the dying fire, better to stare at that then to see Raine and Colette's concern in his mind, to hear Genis' jokes, to see Kratos' scorn. ne  
He was so wound up, so twisted up inside he didn't even hear the door open. Another flash of light made the shadows jump and for one second he could see Kratos...

_Please just take my hop as me not noticing you, don't ask me anything, don't talk to me, just go to bed.._.

Lloyd closed his eyes, drew his arms around himself and tried to fake sleeping. He listened to the fireplaces grate squeak open, listened to the thump of wood being thrown in the fire, and heard a soft sigh of a collapsing log as the poker stirred the embers of the older wood and shift them onto the new fuel. There was a clatter of steel being put on a hook, the poker Lloyd assumed, then he could hear the man's foot falls go past his bed. From the other side of the room there was a creek, and Lloyd sighed to himself. He cracked open his eyes, stared into the starless darkness and held himself so that the shaking wasn't so obvious. 

"If you're cold why don't you just curl up under the blanket?"

Lloyd didn't respond, merely clenched his teeth and stared at the darkness. He was unaware of how the lightning revealed his too wide eyes. His face felt cold, and looking at it Kratos could see the tension, could tell by the lines of the jaw just how tightly Lloyd was clenching his teeth. The few red scabs that remained, after a rushed treatment from Raine's hands, wept red, wept tears that shimmered in those rabbit kin eyes. As for the shaking, Lloyd was not as in control as he imagined himself to be, he was on the outer edge of his control, on the edge of breaking, and only a damned idiot would not see it. Kratos closed his eyes, closed them from the sight of the tortured boy... He ached to get up, walk across the room and take that child in his arms, hold and sooth away the terrors.

He could not, the gesture would not be understood, or worse it would be and lead to unnecessary... attachment.

To save his sanity he would have to keep them all at arms distance, dared not become close to them, not with death being so close. He could almost feel that grim presence hovering over them, since the first temple, since the seal of fire he had felt death settle into all their shadows. It would be safest for him and them if he kept his distance. Better yet if he drove them away from him, and herded the lamb to it's sacrificial alter with the most speed.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed, got up, and the wooden planks under his feet creaked softly. The sound was lost though in the greater roars of water and sky fire.

He should leave, go through the door and begone, leave the boy to his suffering and abandoned in his pain Kratos would sow the first seeds of hate and distrust in that young mind.

It would be easy, only a flash of pain, like a knife in the heart, and the oftlinethin bond of friendship he had made with the young swordsman would be severed, and it would bring him no more pain, no more loss. So many foes had looked at him with hate, so many traveling companions, acquaintances. What difference would one more pair of eyes regarding him in hatred make? None, whispered logic, no difference. 

Everything, came a muffled whisper from his heart, it would mean everything, and while there was pain in the path of keeping the heart whole there were rewards.

There were no chairs, no furnishing save the beds. A fireplace in the far end of the room was the only source of steady light. He went to that red light and sat cross legged as close to the flames as he dared, stared into them and did not turn to face Lloyd.

"Have you ever heard of a salamander Lloyd?" No response, he could feel Lloyd staring at him though, could feel the young man pull himself out of his fears by the prompting of the mercenary's voice. "They are the servants of Efreet, the great keeper and heart of the eternal Fire. They serve he of the Flame a million years, and Efreet in his kindness gives her servants this edict._ Long have you served selfless, my eyes and ears you have been, your very selves had you given to stoke the flames so they never die, now I bid you rest, let your passions run yet one last course, let them mark the world of mere mortals so that they may see and then you shall find your sleep_. He then scattered the eggs -the mortal forms of the deserving salamander- amongst the pulse of every tree, every facet of flint holds a salamander it is said... And so laying in the core of these things they wait so that they may rest. A salamander would appear much like a lizard to our eyes there scales it is said are the yellows, reds, and oranges of the fire, much like this one before us. Their eyes are the softest white of a fire's heart, as they stare at the world and the rest long denied them. And when they are freed and laid out amongst their bedding like any being they burrow into those beds, seeking slumber. Yet any beast touched with fire is forever restless, so the salamanders writhe and twist in their attempts to fall into the temporary oblivion of dreams. They can not sleep, may not rest just yet, so deeper they burrow and harder they dig shedding soft scales of grey that were once beautiful glimmering flames. You see they have worn down those scales, those multi-colored shards of themselves have been worn down to a dull grey and they drift across the lightest breezes."

Thunder roared, the rains continued to fall, yet Lloyd did not hop in terror, indeed if Kratos was much mistaken the young man had let go of the world to be enveloped in the thread of Kratos' tale. There was a crack, a shower of sparks sprang up, caressed the soot streaked brick with ruby fingers, then the fire settled into it'ain s old patters.

"Noisy..." He scolded the fire, letting his eyes close to slits. "Never at peace salamanders dig so fiercely that they are rather noisy creatures. The crackle is the voice of the fire, the squeaks and hisses and stirring of it's restless soul. Eventually sleep does come for them, they rest on a bed of their own scales and their many eyes wink out as do the stars in the coming of dawn."

"Dawn is a long way off.. Isn't it?" Lloyd whispered, the fear was coming back, but it was not as all consuming as it had been before.

"It depends on how you mark time, and how much you care for the time you mark."

"That makes sense, I mean if I understood what you said right it makes sense..." 

"Let us presume you have it right and leave it at that." Kratos opened the grate, tossed another log on, and decided that it would hold for the bulk of the night. "Try to sleep Lloyd, you need your rest, tomorrow will be a long day."

There was a long pause, Lloyd shifted a bit, and Kratos was for once the object of a piercing stare. He turned, returned the scrutiny, silently gauged the young man even as he was being picked at by those dark eyes.

"Can I trust you ... with something private? Something that you wont blab to the Professor or Colette... or anyone... ever?"  
"Why would you trust me?"

Rain fell, dripped along the sides of the building like tears, slammed into the ceiling with the rhythm only found in chaos. Thunder roared, not enough to set the windows to shaking, but the shadows did enough of that for the mercenary's taste.

"Because we're alike, the same, in this, the stars... And... because I need to tell someone who wont laugh at me or think I'm nuts or a little kid..." Kratos nodded, then waited in silence while Lloyd gathered his courage. "It's like this... Every time it rain's, ever since I've been really small I get this dream, where it's raining red and..." Lloyd shivered. "I'm drowning in red, the sky, the ground is red and it rips open, light comes and rips everything open, like silent lightning... but it's not silent, it screams words I don't understand... Then I start drowning, the sky screams and cries and the light comes down. I'm scared, I'm terrorfied even though that light doesn't touch me, even though I know I wont drown I'm scared, and it would seem better just to die then to... the fear... I want to run and I can't, I want to look away but the light burns everything into my head."

Lloyd shivered, turned away before he could see the disgust, the look that said louder then words he was being a little kid. The dream sounded so stupid now that he'd talked about it. He recalled once telling Colette about it, remembered her concern but he had ignored her urging to go to the priests about it. He had told Raine once too, or rather his Dad had in a hope of there being some sort of medicine that could do something about the nightmares. Raine had been concerned, talked about emotional trauma and how the dream was a side effect of some event in his life. Whatever that meant, she hadn't been able to help him, and he had come to the conclusion that no one would be able to. So he dealt with it, and when he wasn't strong enough he went to Noishe, because Noishe did understand, though he couldn't talk Lloyd would stay with Noishe through the storm. Lloyd had spent so many sleepless nights curled up with Noishe, eyes wide, watching the lightning, shaking with a fear he could never conquer. Lloyd's eyes snapped open in shock as the bed creaked, another flash of lightning and Lloyd could see Kratos was sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Are you ashamed of your fear, so ashamed you close your eyes against my response? You should not be. Lloyd every being lives in fear of at the very least one thing, be it fear of the Desians, monsters, illness, or death. Part of what we are is fear, part of who we are is how we deal with this fear." Kratos reached out, smoothed Lloyd's hair with a gentle hand. Then perhaps realizing what he was doing the mercenary flushed, put his hand on his knee. "I apologize... I..."

"It's no big deal." Lloyd felt his eyes getting heavy. "So your telling me you're actually scared of something?"

"A few things, yes." Kratos' lips twitched. "Ironically I have a fear of heights, and... This goes no farther then this room."

"On my honor." Lloyd grinned up at the man.

"Hurmph, honor indeed... Worms and bugs..."

Another flash of light revealed that Kratos was almost the same color as Lloyd's tunic.   
"Weren't there spiders in the Iselia..."

"Yes," Kratos shuddered. "There were."

"How'd you ever get the nerve to deal with it?"

"I tell myself over and over again that if I deal with this spider there will be one less I have to face down in the future."

"I can't exactly swing my sword at a thunder storm and make it go away." Lloyd protested.

"No you can not," Kratos' eyes bore into him. "But there are ways to fight fear, ways to deal with it, to make it so small that while it is still there you can work around it."

"It never goes away, ever?" Lloyd's sleep heavy voice was disappointed.

"Never, it will always be there, but when the time comes and you must face your fear you will defeat it." Lloyd made a soft sound of protest, he was falling into slumber's talons and being swept away. "You will find your courage Lloyd, and your strength, in time."

Lloyd had fallen into the dark behind his eyes, was already asleep before the first word came out.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"We should just tie you two together." Genis teased as they picked their way across the water slicked bridges that lead to nowhere. Or rather that lead to the sea. Sailors were giving them strange looks, outsiders were rare to Izoold, and outsiders who were not merchants or pilgrims were rarer then hen's teeth.

"What's that?" Lloyd looked up from trying to read the writing on the side of a boat. Colette was leaning into him, staring at the water as if hoping to see a fish.

"I'd just be easier." Genis told them, he walked up to his old classmates with a grin. "I mean could you two be any closer?"

"So, what about it?" Lloyd shrugged, and Genis blinked, he'd expected an impassioned 'what's that supposed to mean' or at the very least a 'shut it'. "I like being with Colette, what's that gotta do with tying people together?"

"Genis is just being silly Lloyd."

"Guess so." Lloyd glared at the boat and gave it up with a sigh. "Man it's so boring, Kratos' run off saying he's going to look into getting us a ship and Raine's acting all... weird."

Raine was acting rather strange. She stared at the water, stubbornly clinging to the beach and refusing to put so much as a toe on the docks. When Genis had assured her that it was safe, sturdy, and even pointed out some of the structural strong points of the dock, Raine had merely stared at the water. It was as if she wasn't even listening. Through pale lips Raine had told them to 'have fun' and that she was going to lie down in their room for a little bit. Genis had started to go with her, but she'd asked him to look after Colette and Lloyd while she was resting.

"I hope the professor feels better soon." Colette frowned, then with a squeak pointed to something moving in the water. "Oh look look!"

"Is it a shark?" Lloyd was already leaning over the dock, cheerfully putting his face so close to the water that if it was a shark it wouldn't have any trouble eating him. "s20 Where... Oh I see it!"

Genis saw it too, a long slowly moving creature of dark green. He laughed, realizing what it was and joined Lloyd at the edge of the dock. When it came close enough he laid down on his belly and dipped a hand in the water. 

"Ahh it's got me!"

And just when Lloyd was about to pull him back Genis turned and threw the 'shark' onto the dock. Lloyd yelped, hopped back, and slipped on the wet wood. A long strand of green, a slimy hybrid between grass and lettuce fell. Lloyd squeaked, scrambled back yelling to get it off of him, then as he managed to throw it off of him and crawl back a few paces away from it he stared. That stare turned into a glare.

"Genis that wasn't funny!"

The shark looked suspiciously like seaweed. Genis laughed and so did Colette. After a long annoyed silence Lloyd joined in. When he was done laughing at himself the swordsman firmly kicked the plant off of the deck, and watched it drift off only to tangle around the wooden leg of a nearby pier. 

"Alright alright it was a good one Genis... Just don't do that too often OK? Man I really thought a shark did get you for a sec..."

"More then a sec." Genis laughed, "You should have seen your face it was great!"

"Ha ha... it was really funny..." Lloyd grumbled, his lips were curled though making his sarcasm fake.

"It was!" Colette was still smiling. "It was really funny Genis!"

"Hey who's side are you on Colette?"

"Side?"

"Ung never mind..." There was a ten minute span of silence, where Lloyd stared at the seagulls, then stared at the water, and then at the boats which all seemed to be out in the ocean with great net tails behind them. 

"I'm-"

"Bored" Genis finished the sentence for Lloyd, well the partial sentence. "I hate to say it, but I think I am too."

"Watching the seagulls is kind of boring, they're pretty, but all they do is follow the ships." Colette sighed.  
"It's official, Lloyd's boredom is catchy," Genis sighed, "now that we know that, now what?"

"Become un-bored!" Lloyd grinned, looked around and his eyes took on a light that meant trouble. "Let'\pard s explore!"

"No!" Genis yalped, images of an infuriated Raine dancing in his head. "We can't, there's an assassin, and if Raine ever thinks that we went out of town…" 

"That could be a problem." Lloyd frowned, obviously he had forgotten about the assassin.

"What I we only go a little out of town, just past the fence, there's a nice beach there…" Colette's eyes were wistful.

"I dunno… That assassin might come back…"

"But you could protect us couldn't you Lloyd?"

Genis tensed, waited for the inevitable bragging that comment would bring. He braced himself to have to talk Lloyd out of it, arguments built on the tip of his tongue. And were lost as Lloyd shook his head and said in a quiet voice that he wasn't too sure he could keep them safe. Genis felt his mouth sag open in shock, Lloyd not bragging, Lloyd not saying he was the best….

"Who are you and what have you done to Lloyd?" Genis gasped.

"n Huh?" Lloyd cocked his head to the side, favored his old friend with a puzzled look.

Genis stared at the red clad swordsman. He was still wearing that long sleeve shirt with its thousand and one metal buttons. Those silly ribbons dangled from around his throat, flapped listlessly in the breeze less morning air. Those pants with those weird straps of leather that looped over Lloyd's shoulders and held them up looked as funny as ever. It was Lloyd; the person in front of him had Lloyd's features, his voice, and those dwarven craft clothes. Yet it did not sound like Lloyd was talking. Unable to shake off the shock by the sudden streak of maturity on Lloyd's part Genis didn't bother to explain to his confused human friends just what he had meant, brushing it off as 'not important' and they both went along with it.

"We could explore the town, the houses; look for weird places in town!" Colette chirped.

"Oh that's a great idea Colette." 

Genis sighed his hopes that Lloyd might just be growing up a little were dashed. There was nothing different after all.

"Why don't we tell Raine where we're going before we get started?" 

"Yeah," Lloyd became somber. "That's a good idea Genis. I really don't wanna be Raine'd again."

Xxx xxx xxx xxx  
There wanderings proved only to add to their boredom. The few people not on ships glared at them, obviously not knowing that they were with the Chosen. Lloyd was actually the target of most of those glares, and it lead to a rather rushed walk down the muddy streets. At the end of the last lane of houses, with fisherman's wives and toothless men glowering at there backs they decided to call it a day and head back. That was until they came to the last house on the lane. The house sowed signs of not being inhabited for a long time, the paint was pealing, the broken windows were untended, and it had an 'empty lonely feel' as Colette called it. A small but sturdy fence had been built around the single story house. It was sturdy because Lloyd gave it a firm shake and then decided to lean on it and look at the abandoned home. Though choked with mud and weeds there were hints of what had once been a well organized garden in the front. Small rocks peeked out from between obscuring leaves like eyes from a mess of untamed hair; the plants themselves seemed to be mainly consisted of roses and other non-edible specie of flora.  
"Wow those flowers are really pretty! I wonder why who ever planted them moved."

"The neighbor's maybe?" Lloyd growled, returning the glare of one persistent woman glarer with one of his own.

"So you really like that flower Colette, which one's your favorite?" Genis asked, "I like the blue ones that look like bells. I can't remember their name but in one of Raine's book they can be used for medicinal purp-"

"Woah woah woah… Raine's not with us so no studying."

"But studying is fun Lloyd!" Colette protested.

"Yeah Lloyd," Genis smiled up at his friend, who looked like he had just been betrayed and was feeling it deeply. "Colette's right, studying _is_ fun."

"You know there are a ton of puddles here…" Lloyd gave him a meaningful look and Genis was about boast that he'd fry Lloyd before the swordsman could think to soak him…

"I like the white one.ain " Colette pointed to the only white rose amongst all the deep crimson ones. "It's really pretty."

"Yeah, I guess it is." Genis smiled at the plant, forgetting to make that threat.

"Huh, well we should probably get going before I get glared to death by the old woman over there. Let's go guys."

"Do you have a favorite plant?" Colette asked as they picked there way across the muddy streets back to the inn.

"I liked all the red ones." Lloyd grinned.

"Why am I not surprised?"

"Hey look a medicinal plant!" Lloyd yelled with such enthusiasm that Genis turned before the words sunk in. A hand pushed on his back, gave him a little shove, and his boots slid on the wet ground. He fell down with a grunt, his blue tunic and pants now matched the road.

"That's for the seaweed gag, and just because it's all muddy."  
"Well this is for… for everything! Aqua edge!" 

Water slammed in to the back of Lloyd's legs and the swordsman fell with a loud thump. Lloyd once clad in red now was wearing a sticky brown. He got to his feet, and gave Genis a look that told the wizard he was going to be Noishe'd. Genis tried to dodge, but was sent flying right into the center of the street. Ignoring the shocked stares of the whole street the two boys rolled around. When Genis felt an arm sling around his shoulders he knew it was over.

"No no not that! Help, save me Colette!" The knuckle descended, ruffled his hair and dug into his head with pressure that both tickled and hurt. "Help! Put me down or I'll sp.. sprea…"

There was a splat and he was released. Hand dripping mud Colette struck a little pose, than ran as Lloyd staggered to his feet. Now armed with two handfuls of mud Lloyd went after the savior of the world, his only thought was to get even. Laughing Genis raced to catch up, he didn't need to pick up mud confident that his spells would be enough to save Colette.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

Raine had yelled at the children when they returned covered in what she prayed was mud. They were all -all three of them!- so messy that the color of their clothes, skin, and hair, were a uniform dark brown. She shoed them out of the inn's kitchen, ordered them to go to the bathroom and clean themselves. They came back about five minuets latter, dripping wet; and the squeaks and chanting she heard from outside told Raine that Genis had '_cheated_' with the cleaning. All three of them tracked water into the inn, waddled to the kitchen in their saturated clothes, snatched the lunch that had been left out for those staying, and then curled up by the fire. She had expected something like this from Lloyd certainly, and since Lloyd's favorite target in his mud fights was Genis she knew her brother would get caught up in it… but Colette? Raine was disappointed in the child, she had been hoping for a little more maturity.

Sighing Raine curled up in her chair, a book, Genis' gift, in her hands. She read as they talked, and years of experience allowed her to follow the conversation all the while not losing track of where she was in the text. They had covered the length and width of Izoold to sooth their boredom it seemed, she frowned a little as they talked about the hostility, and did not so lightly dismiss I as did her pupils and brother. If they were here tomorrow, Raine decided, she would give them test after test to keep them busy and indoors and out of mischief.

Colette went to her room, came back with a length of wood and floored pebbles. At the sight of the skip hop board Raine smiled. She had at first protested when she had seen Colette pack it, now she was grateful for the girl's foresight. They needed distraction, from the journey and each other, from time to time. A nice round of hop skip did wonders. Sipping on her coffee Raine poured over her book, made a few notes in a journal she kept just for teaching, and decided she had enough to serve as a test that would span several hours. Lloyd cursed, tugged on his hair and glared at the board and his latest move. Frowning at the language Raine almost said something, then bit her tongue to keep from laughing as the Chosen hopped one of her pieces over three of the swordsman's and had her hopping '_bunny_' promoted to a '_rabbit_'. That move warranted a few profanities. The teacher considered joining in there little game since she was done with her work, the door creaked open and he turned to see a very surly looking Kratos sweep into the room.

He stormed to the table where she was resting; and indifferent to the mud and filth he was dripping into the inn threw himself onto the chair across from her. She asked him what was wrong, as did Lloyd and a scared Colette, the man said nothing, only threw a filthy length of paper onto Raine's notes. Now Raine did glare at the man, she pushed to muddy parchment off of her teaching notes, whipped off the water as best she could then set the booklet into her lap.

He did not apologize; the intensity of his gaze prompted her to open what looked like a poster without complaint. She stared at the picture, the description, and paled.

"How many of these were at the dock?"

"Enough." The mercenary's voice was grim. "You three were indoors most of the day were you not?"

"No? We went out for a while, why?" Lloyd frowned, craned his neck but sitting on the floor as he was he could not see what lay on the table. Kratos thoughtfully helped him with that and threw the poster at the young swordsman. Something in the black clad's gaze must have scared Lloyd, because the boy rolled open the poster with no protest. "Well that explains a lot."

"Explains '_what_'?" Kratos growled the man's expression was so fierce that Raine paled right along with Genis and Colette. They all scooted out of the way of those fire flecked brown eyes.

"There were some people glaring at me in town, we came back early because of it."

"At least you showed some sense."

"Hey, how was I supposed to…?\pard "

"Has the term _thinking_ ever crossed your mind?"

"I don't deserve that Kratos!" Lloyd hopped to his feet. "What the hell's up? You've been acting like a totally jack ass ever since this morning!"

"What did you just say?" The mercenary's voice dropped to a whisper.

Lloyd didn't either catch the dangerous note in the man's voice, the slight twitch over the man's left eye, the clenching of the sword hand, or just ignored it, because the boy repeated himself.

"We are trapped here for a week at most until one of the more daring captain's return and can give us passage; we are little more then sitting targets while the Desians catch up with us."

"That doesn't give you the right to bite off my head because I didn't know. We weren't at the main docks, we were at the smaller ones by the inn." Lloyd countered, meeting those angry eyes with a total lack of fear that Raine silently admitted that she envied. "We didn't see the stupid poster, all right? If we had we would have come here and stayed."

"He's right Mr. Kratos, we didn't see anything bad like this, or we would have come back."

Raine saw the mercenary wince, he grimaced at being called "Mr. Kratos". Taking a deep breath the man seemed to compose himself. He slid a hand through his hair, and then faced the boy he had just insulted with a slight tinge of red about his cheeks.

"You are correct Lloyd, I overstepped myself, I apologize. My only excuse is I have been listening to excuses and whining all day long and my patience is running a bit short."

"A bit?" Genis mouthed to his sister in elvish. Since Kratos wasn't looking at him Genis must of figured it safe enough to say something, and saying his comment in elvish offered another level of protection. Raine smiled slightly, signed for him to keep his mouth shut.

"Yeah, gotcha" Raine could almost see the tension drain out of Kratos, and out of the room. Lloyd looked at the paper, a frown on his face. "So, now that they got descriptions of me everywhere, now what?"

"We damp the beacon." Kratos' lips curled. "Obscure the trail."

"I don't think I like that look." Lloyd looked frightened. "Matter of fact that's the same look you gave me before we spared for the first time…"

"Explain yourself Mr. Aurion." Raine told her fingers they could let go of the book now that Lloyd and Kratos weren't going to fight and she wasn't going to have to break it up.

He explained, and while simple the plan was a good one. Raine nodded, offered a few suggestions. Both adults then cheerfully worked out some of the kinks, ignoring Lloyd's vocal protests.

Colette giggled, turned to Lloyd. "I think it'll work Lloyd, and you'll get some new clothes too! Isn't that nice?" \pard line  
"Man this is going to be funny!"

"No, I won't let any of you…"

Kratos only turned, gave Lloyd a long measuring look and the boy paled.

"I can have it done by tonight, but I'll need some more thread." 

"Oh come on Kratos you can't be serious! Raine you can't be listening to this, it's not gunna work! Oh dear God's of Earth what did I do to get into this?"

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Well?" He could not completely hide the expectant note in his voice if he tried.  
"I want my red shirt back! I want my pants, I want my swords, and I want this stupid thing-" Lloyd pointed to Kratos' spare cloak which he was now wearing. "Off!"

"It looks dignified." The mercenary smoothed down the flaps that served as massive shoulder pads. Lloyd was far too slender to carry the look. His arms swam in the pads and the cloak hung behind him, obscured most of him. The feeling of wearing the cloak was so strange that Lloyd kept turning around expecting that someone sneaking up on him. The tips brushed against the floor behind him and he felt like he was a little kid trying on his father's clothes. The short sleeve tunic was tight, pressed against his skin, the pants were much the same, and he was already missing the freedom of his baggy pants and shirt. 

He was also missing the warmth that the long sleeve tunic gave him, with the chill water heavy air outside he was cold, well colder, without his long sleeve red shirt.

"Stop squirming." Kratos slid a hand through the young man's hair, mussing it up so that some of it fell into the boy's eyes. "I hate to say it, but the cloak is a bit large on you, I think I have a smaller spare in my packs though, I'll go fish it out." Kratos turned, dug into his packs looking for his smaller cloak. He didn't know why he had bothered to hold onto the tailor's mistake, but it was serving a good use. He looked regretfully at the arm covers that he favored instead of long sleeves, but the fabric kept sliding off of Lloyd's slender arms. He turned, cloak draped over his arm, to see Lloyd tugging on the tailored shirt.

"You honestly think this is going to work?"  
"If you had agreed to the dying of your hair I would say it would most certainly work." At Lloyd's annoyed glared Kratos chuckled. "I am joking; yes it should, so long as you remember your role."

"Why do I have to act like a mercenary, why couldn't I pretend to be a scholar or something?"

"Tell me," Kratos gently draped the cloak over his '_apprentice's_' shoulders. "What year did the Iselian's pass there non-aggression treaty with the Desian's?" 

"Umm."

"How long was the Kharlan War?" The cloak's neck hooks were linked together with a slight click. 

"Fifteen years?"

"Try fifty three years and you might be right. Tell me the answer to this; twenty percent of ten is…"

"OK OK I get it! So I'm dumber then a brick, don't rub it in."

"The answer is two, and since you are my _apprentice_ I guess I should take charge of your education." 

"What? No, Raine's bad enough! I don't want another teacher!"

"I believe the saying is 'tough luck'." Kratos grabbed Lloyd's wrist to stop the boy from pulling the hair out of his eyes. "Leave it alone Lloyd, or should I say Garr?" 

"Why'd you have to name me for some hero from way back when?"

"Do you like Raine's attempt to name you better?"

"No!" Lloyd's face went pale. "Not Boltzman…" Lloyd shuddered. "Man I feel sorry for her kids, they're all going to be named after healers and weird philosophers and archeologists aren't they?"

"I imagine so." 

"Well at least it's not as bad as your name. Ruian? Man I thought Raine was going to go all ruin mode on you after you told her the name."

"Ruin, Ruian, Aurion, I guess they do sound the same." Kratos shifted the pads on his cloak, centered them and the cloak with the ease of someone doing it most of his life. "Stand up straight and let me look you over."

Lloyd sighed, endured having his cloak tugged once more.

"It looks stupid…" Lloyd protested. "I miss my red."

"It makes you look older." Kratos corrected, his lips were curled into a gentle smile. "The color looks good on you despite not being red."

"Genis is going to not let this go. I'm never going to hear the end of this." Lloyd tromped to the body length mirror, frowned. "Ung we look like we're related. All of the nights talk at the inn's coming back now."

"Stop behaving a child Lloyd, you actually look like an adult now so try to act like one."

Kratos padded up to the mirror and now Lloyd could see them both. The mercenary looked alright in the sparrow tail cloak and skin tight black tunic and pants, he carried himself with a grace of someone who had power and it honestly didn't matter what he was dressed in. Lloyd felt like a little kid trying on his father's clothes, and he carried himself as he thought of himself. He was lanky, and despite having the clothes fitted down for his build they were too long. Kratos had suggested tucking the tunic into the first belt and it helped, a little.

Still it looked stupid.

"Can't I ditch the cloak at least?"

"No. It's common that an apprentice dress as much like his master as he can so that all know that he serves another."

"My swords…"

"I'll carry them; most apprentices of a warriors trade start with knife work anyways."

Lloyd' face scrunched up in thought. "You're gunna get a lot of attention if you're carrying my twin swords, your broadsword, and a shield. Especially all at the same time aren't you?"  
"Your swords will be in my packs, as will my shield, do not worry I'll work it out so I can get them out if we run into trouble… Now then, come along Garr, your friends are eagerly awaiting our appearance." 

"Whatever you say Ruian, um I mean uh master?"

"Master is more appropriate, though I do not like it in the slightest." 

"You and me both." Lloyd grimaced, unwittingly making the exact same face as the mercenary. "How's "Ruian sir," sound? Thats20 's what Dad said a dwarven soldier calls his commander. Commander and apprentice are kind of the same aren't they?"

"Sir will serve, and no they are not the same..." Kratos sighed, rubbed at his temple with a hand. "I imagine most people do not know the proper etiquette around here anyways. Ready?"

"Yeah, I guess so. So after Genis goes nuts and teases the heck out of us then what?"

Lloyd didn't get his answer; Kratos opened the door and with a sigh stepped out of the bedroom and into the hall. There was a sigh behind him, a muttered prayer to the summon spirit of earth, then Lloyd stepped into the hall. Genis took one look at Lloyd, then fell to the floor howling in laughter, Colette smiled said it looked cute, and Raine went into a suspicious fit of coughing.

"Look Kratos has a twin!" Genis managed around his laughs.

"Shut it I don't look like Kratos!"

"You do look a bit alike." The blonde girl smiled. "But in a good cute way."

"Cute?" The mercenary coughed. "Chosen I am not in any way what so ever-"

"Especially the cape!" Colette continued, not hearing Kratos' protest. "It looks like butterfly wings!"

"Wha- butterfly… someone say that isn't…" Lloyd's face was turning red. "No, no way!"

The mercenary felt blood rush to his face even as he managed a more coherent protest then Lloyd.

"Colette does have a point." Raine agreed, her blue eyes twinkling with good humor. "It does resemble the wings of a butterfly."

"See." Much to Kratos' mortification the Chosen slipped behind him and set the flaps to… flapping. She slid her hands under the pads, rested her digits on his shoulders then pushed against the bottom of the pads. "See just like a butterfly's. Flap flap…"

"Chosen, that's enough." He shrugged off her touch and she left him alone, though the way she was eying Lloyd made the mercenary realize that Lloyd was now in serious danger. "Come, enough of this, Lloyd and I have some work to do and…"  
His words were not heeded, and the situation which was uncomfortable as it was now got worse as Raine and Colette tried to figure out what type of butterfly the flaps resembled and Genis got control enough over himself to make even more jabs at the two blushing swordsmen. Things rapidly deteriorated from there.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"When will you two be back?" Colette asked him, looking at Lloyd who was talking to Genis, both were hunched over a book. Discussing one of Raine's upcoming tests no doubt. Kratos had yet to inform Lloyd that he was not jesting, that both he and the professor had agreed that the mercenary would tutor him. Kratos had assured the Chosen that they would be back as soon as they could, and she seemed content enough with his promise. She went to join Genis and Lloyd, and the studying swiftly turned into gossiping.

To Raine's query he was a bit more honest. 

"Tonight at best, unless something happens, if we aren't back by the morning of the next day we'll meet you outside of town."

"Take care of him." Raine gave him a long look. "lain If he picks up one bruise or cut I'll…." Unable to '_properly_' discipline him Raine had to make do with some other kind of threat it seemed. "Stick you in his place in my classes for a month!"

And that was a rather terrifying image to hold in his mind, especially after Lloyd had taken some pains to describe the school in Iselia. He suddenly pictured himself crammed into a small desk with Raine standing over him pointer in hand, or worse yet a bucket in each hand… Kratos shook his head, dismissed the image, there was no way she could carry it out anyways so he had nothing to worry about. Yet hadn't he thought that during the first Raine storm? He decided to ask Lloyd if Raine had ever done something like that to anyone in Iselia. That would be the best way to see just how safe he was.

"We might spar after words, we might not. I need to establish him as my apprentice, and the best way to do so is to make a show of it." 

"What's the real reason you're going out for?" Raine had challenged him, and he had shrugged, watching the three youths talking he could see himself in Lloyd's place with three old friends… One who was now dead and the other two estranged. Sighing Kratos came to the here and now, dismissed the memories.

"To make him used to the disguise, to get used to it myself, and to gather news of what's going on in the Sylvast continent." 

"Sylvast, I've never heard anyone ever call that continent by it's name save text books."

Kratos shrugged. "Would you rather me say 'the continent we aren't on?' lain that is a rather childish way to describe it don't you think?"

"It is," Raine looked out into the grey skies that seemed to bleed into everything and make the world a dull hue. The storm would be coming back by nightfall. "I don't know if you were aware but Lloyd needs to be back here before the storm breaks." 

"I know, and I understand why, I will do what I can." Kratos ran a hand through his hair. "I know this already but you should know as well… At best we won't be leaving Izoold until three days have passed, I'm merely making contacts with the people here to see what captains are trustworthy and which ones might have sold out to the Desians."

Raine nodded, so she had expected that too, good, she was not as naïve as he had thought.

"Also, that creature in Ossa, this span of time gives us an opportunity to deal with it. I take back what I said about it not being our concern Ms. Sage, it has me concerned, I want to check up on some stories I've heard about people disappearing in the mines of Ossa. I think that young assassin might have woken whatever it was that was killing the miners, and if it finds its way out..."

"Its presence, even when it was slumbering, gave Genis a bad feeling. He's really sensitive about mana, more so then I am, and he told me that when we passed over the cavern he was scared to death. I don't like the idea of fighting… but I think we might have cause this time."

Xxx xxx xxx xxx 

Kratos sighed, sipped at the wine in his glass and stepped on Lloyd's foot to keep him from saying anything. They had taken a shadowy booth at one of the more busy if less reputable taverns, and as the fishermen were coming in to get a drink and bite so too was coming in gossip. Lloyd wanted to go up, ask questions, he was loath to sit back and let the words lap against the ears.

"Hush, drink your water and let things come as they will."

Lloyd glared at him, annoyed that he wasn't allowed to have wine. Kratos had told him that it was either water or milk and the young man had hesitantly taken water.

The room smelled of tar, unclean men, and under cooked food. The chief could have done Raine proud, there was a person on par with her cooking skills, and the smells that came from the kitchen were enough to persuade Lloyd that he wasn't all that hungry. Tales of sea monsters, of whirlpools, and places where the tide did not stir and the very water rotted in it's stillness made Kratos nod his head. As he expected, the mana levels of the world were so low that the very moons could no stoke enough of the land's power to make the tide stir. This Regeneration had to succeed there would be no more time for another Chosen to brave the trials. The world would die before a hundred years had passed.

"Easy…" Kratos grabbed Lloyd's arm, kept him from leaping to his feet in outrage as one of the patrons described in drink slurred voice what he planned for his wife that night. "We are not here to play hero, merely to observe."

"It's not right!" Lloyd growled. 

"And you gutting him, how right would that be? Look, you see that man in the corner wrapped in the felt blanket?" Lloyd nodded. "He's a guardsman, '_look_' at him Lloyd. He has not had a drop of wine, and his eyes are open ever so slightly. He will deal with the bastard, where if we tried to do something we would be charged with murder, or attempted murder." 

"He is kind of stiff huh? Not like everyone else, kind of at attention…"

"Exactly, it's the norm here, so close to two ranches Izoold dares not have an open militia of any kind, so they merely find another way to tend to issues. Relax; you are drawing attention to us Garr. Enjoy your drink and keep your ears open, we'll discuss what we've heard after we are outside.a99 "

Lloyd tried to do so, but he seemed very uncomfortable in his new role. Kratos leaned back, stretched, and with a hand called for a bar maid to come to their table. Seeing one of the woman nod, the mercenary caressed the hilt of his blade, scanned the crowds and decided he had gotten enough information for now. He smiled, touched Lloyd's arm and the young man followed his gaze to the door. The drunkard was leaving the building, and the guardsman was following.

"See?"

"Yeah, I guess so I was kinda nervous you know?"

Kratos nodded his understanding, and decided it was best to ask since he had the young man's attention. "Do you want to eat here or go else where for dinner?"

"Wha- I thought we were going back before nightfall…"

"Keep your voice down Garr. No, we are not, I'll explain over dinner."

"Anywhere but here… How can they eat that stuff?" Lloyd asked, pointing to a few of the patrons who were wolfing down what Kratos hoped was fish stew.

"The drink numbs the tongue and most of them are drunk enough that they will get sick soon enough so that the food will come up all on its own. And put your hand down, you are gawking is gathering us attention we do not need."  
Lloyd did as ordered with no protest, absently rubbed at his exposed ex-sphere.

"A deicie for yer drinks and four sie coins apiece fer yer food if ye be eatin' here." The bar maid said in a cold tone. She squinted at them, saw there faces, or rather his face, and smiled. "I might be seein' a way ta git ye gentleman a discount however." She reached out, moved to stroke his arm.

"No thank you." His expression was enough to make her back up a step. He tossed down the coin for his drink though it was grossly over priced and in other situation he might have argued. A familiar sensation, a pricking between his shoulder blades, told Kratos they best leave. That they should make a fast retreat before trouble started, the patrons of the bar were becoming quiet, subdued, it seemed as if the tavern's champion was coming. Not wanting to expose Lloyd to any more of the charms of the seedier side of Izoold, Kratos bid the young man to come with him.

The mercenary stood, and Lloyd did so as well, nervously scanning the crowd. So he had picked up that something was wrong from Kratos' voice and posture. The mercenary smiled slightly, an eyes only smile that was tinged with a bit of sorrow. While Lloyd's response showed his lack of skill Kratos knew time would fix that. Pride touched him, satisfaction. The young swordsman had a fast wit if he was learning this quick. Hopefully he'd have that time to continue to learn.

"Hey there boy…" Came a drink slurred voice from the bar, a man reached out, pawed Lloyd's arm and Lloyd' froze. "That's a nice ring there Thao be wantin' it I bet when he hears of it."

"It's not for sale." Lloyd clenched his hand, shoved it behind him and Kratos grimaced. Damn it he should have ordered the boy to leave the sorcerer's ring with Raine. Of course it would gather attention, the band looked to be made of red crystal and the gem stone looked like a large ruby, no one in Izoold would be used to seeing such finery. Mentally berating himself for not thinking about something so obvious Kratos firmly steered his charge to the door. The door swung open with a loud bang, and the silence that followed that grandiose entrance set Kratos' blood to ice. It seemed as if the tavern's champion had arrived. 

Lloyd froze, the wrong response, and in this case it might prove to be dangerous. Freezing marked you as prey. Gripping Lloyd's shoulder Kratos stood impassively as the drunk who had tried to take the ring crowed out that the 'runt' was walking out with something that was meant for Thao.

"Is it?" The man grunted he was more gut then muscle, but his frame was large, and imposing despite what his life of gluttony had done to him. The man stood a good head above Kratos and he had the charming scent of the tavern's food about him. Kratos winkled his noise in distaste as the mans sewer scented breath fell upon him.

"Ya gotta problem with me shortie?"

Kratos only stared up at the man; Thao looked away first, shivered at that cold impassive stare. 

"Come Garr, we have other matters to attend."

"That's a nice ring there boy. I thinkin' I want it."

"It's not for sale." Kratos could feel Lloyd tense under his hand, he did not linelet go, prayed his touch would keep the young man from doing anything rash.

"I didn't say nothin' bout buyin' runt, I'm takin'."

A few stools scraped across the wood floor, a hand fell on Kratos shoulder.

"Best give it to 'im ol' man, less you want that kid o' yours in a pit somewhere." 

Kratos spared the man who dared touch him a second of his time, and the thin slip of a man shuddered and released him, fumbled with his own knot. He'd be busy for a bit anyways, it was safe enough to ignore him for a moment. "Garr, go to the table we were at and wait."

He ripped off the peace knot off of his sword and knife. The white fabric drifted to the ground, brushed against his boot, and he was aware of the patrons staring at him. They were a line of bloodshot red eyes, only three men had gotten up to aid their champion in dealing with him. And while not bad odds…

"Kratos two more of them are behind us, they have clubs." Lloyd whispered, fingering the knot that secured his knife to its hilt.

While the odds were good he had a cause not to fight.

"I seek no fight, go back to your ale and leave us alone. The boy can not give up the ring, it's not for sale, just get out of our way and no one dies."

"You're a cocky one aren't ya?" The big man's small eyes narrowed as wine fuddled wits tried to piece together a coherent sentence.

"Garr, go to the table, now!" 

"No way, and even if I could I wouldn't."

Kratos sighed, then drew his knife and casually thrust out behind him. There was a croak, the man who had been trying to sneak up behind him with a knife shuddered once from the force of the attack then fell to the floor clutching his gut and howling.

"My last warning," Kratos leveled the bloody knife at the tavern's champion. "Stand aside or die where you stand." The mercenary ignored Lloyd's look of disgust, ignored the young man's look of horror at the fact that Kratos casually handled the bloody knife and seemed uncaring that there was a man less then a step behind him shrieking in agony. Dying in agony…

The drunk charged, pulled a club from his belt and swung. Dodging the strike, taking Lloyd with him Kratos managed to throw the boy out of range of the fighting. People scattered like startled birds, and Lloyd slipped in some ale and smashed into a table. Wincing in sympathy Kratos had no more time to spare for his '_apprentice_' he side stepped another swing, managed one of his wound and drew a line of red that ran the length of his opponent's arm. Snarling an oath the man aimed a two handed downward swing for Kratos' head.

Fool as he was he left his body completely open with that fool hardy move. Kratos slammed his blade into the drunk's chest, the steel was long, so long that if it had been his thought to do so he could have lined up the tip of the blade with his longest digit and the sharpened steel of his dagger would have ran from that point down past his wrist. It was certainly long enough to slip through a gap in a man's ribs and find his heart. Thao, if that was even the man's name, stared dumbly at the mercenary, looked down at the dagger, and the light of life fled his eyes.

From behind him there was a thud, he turned, saw Lloyd slump down onto his knees. It seemed as if one of the bastards had forsaken his club and had made do with a chair. A quick glance as the slashes that ran the man's prominent arm told Kratos why the club had been forsaken. The thin man's arm was probably so numb from the lack of blood he had discarded the thin handled weapon for something he could use. Grunting Lloyd managed to look at his foe, see the chair rise again. If that blow landed… a concussion would be the best scenario. There was neither time nor room in the tavern to work his sword into the fight, nor was there time to wrench his blade out from its sheath of human flesh. He ran, knowing he could not get there in time.

Lloyd crossed his arms in front of his head, as if to catch the blow. A blue light crackled around him, turned into a sphere of silver blue that held for all of a heartbeat. That was enough though, the chair skittered off of the wall of mana, and the ruffian gapped.  
"Demon! Desian! I'll send your murderous hide to hell!" The man threw himself onto Lloyd; hand's locking around the boy's throat. 

Shit, this was not what they needed right now, the other people were gathering up there courage, this was going to turn into a riot… He ran up to the human who was strangling Lloyd, pried of those hands and saw the black lines, the finger shaped bruises. 

Grimly he shifted his grip on the man's throat, gave a sharp twist, and there was an audible crack. The would be Desian slayer'\pard cs10s head lolled in a way that only a man who's neck was broken would. Coldly he dropped the carrion to the floor, met Lloyd's horrified expression.

"Garr, get up!"

Shaking Lloyd did as ordered, rubbing at his throat all the while. Gasping for breath, hands still rubbing Lloyd, staggered back a step, caught himself on one of the tables and slumped against it in exhaustion.

Lloyd was out of the fight, there was no way he could expect the boy to hold against any foe right now.

Spying the last fighter trying to slip around and take him from the side Kratos drew his last knife from his boot and threw. It was obvious to him that his foe had planned to pin him against the wall and bludgeon him to deat, as it was the steel that imbedded itself into the man's throat became a major determent in that plan. The man managed to gasp, then stumbled and his corpse slid across the tavern floor to stop at his feet. 

Well it saved him a trip at least; he bent down, ripped the knife from the man's throat, and then whipped it off on his glove. By far his glove was the cleanest piece of fabric in this hovel.

"I told you it would be best if you stayed out of the fight.\pard cs10" Kratos scolded Lloyd, then went to the where his last knife rested and wrenched his blade from its sheath of human flesh. He frowned at the blood, at his glove, then spotting a rag that had been abandoned by a barmaid who had wisely abandoned her post Kratos cleaned his blade. Well clean was the relative term since the rag was filthy, but it was by far cleaner then the tunic that lay on his dead foes back. "If you're going to lose control of your guts do so outside."

Lloyd managed to nod and bolted for the door. 

"Any, who call us Desian again, will be met with a worse fate then this lot." Kratos announced, his voice so cold that several of those remaining could imagine the wine and ale freezing in their casks.

"Who's gunna pay for the clean up!" whimpered the tavern's owner, daring to peak from behind the bar he had so wisely dived behind. As almost all the patrons and servants of this hovel had ducked behind.

"Take it from them." Kratos snapped, and then went outside to see how Lloyd was holding up.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Take slow sips," Kratos ordered Lloyd, who was drinking a heavily watered down wine under the mercenary's supervision. "Half the glass will settle your stomach but the trick is to make it last a while."

Lloyd did as ordered, his hands were shaking though and he sloshed a great deal of the liquid about. Lloyd had been very skittish around him for an hour or so, and was now at least responding when the mercenary talk. Taking that as a sign that the boy was getting over his shock Kratos had decided to take the boy to a different inn. It was in part to avoid Raine's furry, to spare Lloyd the questioning of his innocent friends, and in part to feel the whole situation out. As horrid as it would sound to any other Kratos was pleased with this response on Lloyd's part, though it pained him to have to put Lloyd in that situation where Lloyd had to see someone die in cold blood. He would have been very worried had Lloyd taken the death in stride.

"The first time is always the hardest, to commit the act and to see it committed."

"Murder you mean?" Lloyd squawked, his eyes were haunted, rain pattered against the roof and thunder rumbled. Seeing Lloyd's pale drawn face the owner had ordered his help to tend them then leave them alone.

"You wear a blade you deal death, if you can not deal with that then stay behind in PalmaCosta." Kratos sipped his glass of water, stared at his pupil with an intensity that numbed by his horror the boy could not feel. "Genis said you fought the guards at the ranch, killed them. How is what I did so different?"

"I… I did it to protect Genis…" 

"As I acted to protect you, I think perhaps it's not the act but the manner in which I carried out my actions. My cold blooded detachment in saving your life verses the hot blood of you passionately defending your friend. At least that's how you perceive it."

Lloyd nodded, took a sip of the wine and grimaced at the bitter taste.

"Something like that." Lloyd shivered. "It's just had, when... right in front of…" 

"Lloyd, life and death are a part of us. The very breath we draw is a challenge to death, and so spurred by our audacity to challenge the great dark hovers about us waiting to snatch our last breath. It's startling to see death, terrifying, because it touches in you the fact that it could have been you. It could have been at your hand the man died, your blade, or it could have been you dying. To see someone die, to kill someone… it's a violation, a torment. The very core of life is to live, and by handing out death you defy that core… Every time your blade slides home it is as if it plunges into your own flesh, spills your own blood, and that blood gathers in the blade never to be forgotten. The weight of a sword is perhaps the heaviest of them all. I can tell you that my sword is the heaviest burden I have ever carried in my life, and that nothing will ever lighten that load for me. I despise drawing it, knowing I have to kill another being and add more weight, but that's what I do, it's my job. I've had years to come to terms with that, to… distance myself from that pain so that I can no longer show it, where you in your youth have not."

"I... don't like it… like this… but I think I don't have a choice." Lloyd took a deep breath, stared at Kratos as if expecting some negative response. Scorn? Anger? Kratos felt none of those things, but he let none of his true response show, he would let the young man pick his own path. "If I were to… I dunno throw my swords to the ocean; toss every knife and sword out to the sea then what? I can't protect Colette, or anyone else I care for… and that's why I picked up the blade in the first place… to protect Dad and Noishe, then Colette, Genis, Raine… I... it might be better if it's me doing it, rather then them… Not just because I'm good at it; or because I used to do it before I ever thought about it… but rather me then them."

Kratos said nothing, only sipped at his glass of water; he'd had enough wine for one evening.

"And it's really pisses me of that you can just say '_it's my job_'! It… it shouldn't have to be anyone's job! It shouldn't have to be like that, where people are killed for no reason!"

"It is a fact Lloyd, it is what mercenary means, I protect those who pay me for that protection and sometimes to protect means to kill. We are put in that situation because hatred exists. Or at least that's what I was taught and believe. So long as hatred exists there will be fighting and death, they go hand in hand."

"I know that… And you can't do away with hatred, I know that too."

"Why not?" Kratos dropped his mask, showed his curiosity openly.

"Because you'd have to get rid of everything about hatred. It'd be like pulling a weed out but instead of yanking the whole thing out you only pull off the leaf that says '_bad anger_;' and another that says '_bad hatred_' and hope it kills the weed." 

"Is there good anger, good hatred?" Kratos let his lips curl in a mix of scorn and humor. "Hatred and anger don't have any good in them; it is contradictory, like saying something is good-bad and bad-good."

"Can't it be though? I mean whenever I carve something it can look good but have a thing in it that look bad to me, but when I 'fix' I it looks worse because it does not have that bad part to make the good stand out."

lain Both of Kratos' eyebrows hopped in surprise, seemed intent on hiding amongst his hair.

"You might be on to something Lloyd, my recommendation, we continue this talk later tonight, perhaps as we journey, as it is you are hungry, and a bite would not hurt me either."

"I don't think I can eat… I'm still all…" Lloyd shuddered, then his stomach growled and he laughed quietly. "Double crossing…"

"And thus the God's remind us that emotion aside we are still human and need sustience." Kratos met the gaze of a waiter and a gesture on his part beckoned the girl forward. "Think on it Lloyd, don't ever stop thinking on it and you might become a better man then I am." 

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Thanks" Lloyd had muttered as he lay down on his makeshift bed of blankets and pillows on the floor. "For earlier and all that."  
"For brutally killing a man in front of you? For shaking the very foundations of your innocence? By my actions I have torn down one of the key pillars of your morals, what thanks do I deserve for that?" Kratos had replied bitterly, his eyes closed in an attempt to seek slumber.

"For saving my life… and for making me think… Though my heads hurting right now so I guess my head's not all that happy about it…" Lloyd had laughed; he was facing the fire, sleeping on the floor as close to the fire as he dared so that he could sleep. It was his idea to help with his fear and Kratos had not begrudged him the chance to try that idea out. The other one about going to be nude however, to keep from running outside if he lost to his terror… ain Kratos had said he'd tie Lloyd to a bed it necessary to keep him indoors so that Lloyd wouldn't go to sleep in his bare skin. 

Lloyd was asleep now, they'd talked a bit and Lloyd had fallen asleep during that discussion. He'd actually fallen asleep in mid sentence. Kratos stared listlessly into the night, into the red tinged shadows that hovered around Lloyd. He prayed to whatever gods there were that those shadows were not an omen. Through his shirt he caressed something small, metallic, he did not draw it out to gaze upon it, knew well enough what it was and what it looked like. He ran his fingers over it though over a locket that held the last of his legacy, the last of his peace.

He had once thought that it held the last part of him that could love, could feel.

It hurt, burned to learn that that was not the case. That despite the years and years of loneliness he could still feel, and as he looked at Lloyd's slumbering form he realized something else. He could still love, and to deny it was to deny himself. 

_"…your heart is in peril with this journey. Guard it close if you wish to complete your job with little pain... but open it if you wish to rise above all other men and be blessed with the God's greatest status."  
_  
There were no guards over his heart any longer, no guards left to watch over his soul and spare it yet again should he fail. He welcomed the pain, for it was not wholly pain but something deeper far richer was mixed with that pain, that agony. Tears burned behind his eyes, burned at him as had that revelation burned. Sleep may come to him, it may not, but dreams would come either way, and perhaps, just perhaps, they would not be bad ones. Stroking the locket under his shirt, feeling each link of the chain rub against his flesh he smiled. He was certain now, resolved, they would not be bad dreams, not at first. And when the nightmare did descend he would wield sword and shield against the horrors, not for his sake but for another. And if there was no higher blessing by the hands of the god's to give himself over, to defend, and be part of the life of another, he knew not of it.

"I will protect you…" He mumbled to the sleeping youth, he wondered why his eyes were feeling so heavy. "So long as I have breath you will not die." He closed his eyes, gave into the weakness of slumber.

His last thought was the image of a thread, a thin golden thread thicken, deepen and wind between himself and Lloyd, and that image barely brushed against his mind as he fell into slumber. 

Xxx xxx xxx xxx  
The flame shook in Genis' hand, he was scared, so scared that he was trembling even as he walked. He was so sensitive; a shift in mana was as physical to him as a shift in the wind was to a bird. He'd explained it a time or two. To him mana words had a feel, place that was heavy with one aspect had a taste, a monster which was made by fouled mana and some animal merged together had a certain scent. He lived in a world separate from hers, and when they were alone he had strived to explain it. Mana had a look, a feel, it stoked all of the senses, told all, was all, or rather a part of all. That she could not understand. He spoke of threads, of weaves, and pulses that went through the heart and went to their own rhythm that touched all senses. It was when he abandoned the concrete descriptions, when he fell into the lull of his words and world that she became lost. She did not, could not, deny the reality of what he was explaining, to do that would be beyond cruel and destroy them both. Rather it was her; her comprehension of that reality was none existent. So Genis had learned a harsh lesson in his youngest days, that while she lived in one way he would live in another and there was no way for them to bridge that gap. In the dark of the night, or perhaps over some meal he had cooked, they would talk of this different reality, strive to understand and take humor in their failing. Now, more then ever she wished she could see as he did, know of it better so she could soothe the fear in him, the fear that his vision was inflicting on him. He dared no speak of it now, not with the others so close, but she knew in a way that only a bond to blood between them would allow her to know, what was wrong and what was causing that wrong. She could do nothing for this was not a monster in the closet that she could spook away with a light spell, not a nightmare that she could hold his hand through and banish with the warmth of a touch. Rather it was a nightmare, a waking nightmare and they were walking farther in.

"Genis, you can stop the spell, I'll make light for us." Raine whispered, giving his hand which she held in her own a gentle squeeze. He looked at her, and his far too wide eyes, he seemed so scared.

She smiled, understood, opened her hand and let the warm golden light form a small sphere in her hand, a soft steady golden light that forced the darkness and the monsters it was constructed of back. The dark seemed a malovent thing, after picking there way down the steep slope, descending down rapidly into the throat of the tunnel the shadows seemed to try to snuff out the lights that hung from the rafter's over their heads. They had walked, a path of rusted steel and kicked up the dust between those twin steel lines, had stumbled over shards of what looked to be splintered wood. At least at first, the deeper they went in the easier I was to see hands clutching at the ankles, to imagine the soft fall of dust and drops of water from stalactites tapping into stalagmites to be the impatient fingers of death tapping against the stone, the soft rustling of the Dark One's robes as he ghosted behind them. The lights deeper in were snuffed out, the walls once smooth turned harsh, jagged. Lloyd had called it, 'untamed' or rather had muttered a word in dwarvish and when Raine had pressed him to explain it he had muttered that response.

As her light fanned out, illuminate the cavern, no the tunnel, until they could see those jagged walls Genis waved his hand, cancelled his flame. Her light was steady, pure, the shadows did not dance to the motions of the fire, were driven of by that golden light and those that had the nerve to stay were highlighted in gentle hues. She had always wondered why her light spell would sooth his nightmares, and now at the feet of some great beast that seemed to cultivate nightmares for its own purpose she understood.  
"Do you remember what I said earlier?" She said to Genis as she took point and he held onto her. She kept her voice down so that no one else could hear her. "About the thread and how to use it as a shield?"

He nodded; she felt it more then saw the gesture.

"Do that. Think of that, and I'll do it too, that way it's easier for you."

They were strange like that; thinking of the same thing sometimes made it clearer to both of them to understand it. They didn't talk it over, but somehow shared a singular awareness, a closeness so intense that it bridged that gap between them. She had heard of his phenomenon between twins, had heard of it from time to time between children and their parents, seen it once in Lloyd and Dirk when they'd finish each other's sentences. It did exist, she didn't understand it, but she would happily use it if it would help Genis.

_Think of each strand and remember it in full, draw it around you and it will keep you safe and light the dark_.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx 

Though she saw the path slope again, though her feet and his picked across the stone strewn path, she saw another time. Genis, happy, chirpy, was explaining the threads to her at the age of five. Explaining her thread to her at the age of five.

"\pard It's all green and golden; it's warm and fizzy like the neighbor's cat. It's got a slow steady thump to it and it's all tickle-ie when it moves and it's wound real tight around me." 

Xxx xxx xxx

A latter time, she recalled a latter time when she had been hesitant about meeting Lloyd, about making him more then a student, making him a friend. He was Genis' friend, and a bad student in her class, perhaps one of the worst. She had been leery seeing the friendship between Genis and the headstrong dwarf's son, worried truth be told. Lloyd was a human, and while not all human's were bad. She had talked to Genis about it, had asked him if he had ever… looked at Lloyd with his special sight. He had nodded, said he always did when he was uncertain of someone and had proceeded to describe Lloyd.

"Red, bright red and dark red threads all wound up with each other, and their hot! Almost too hot, almost burning, but not quite that hot as to hurt, it's like standing right by a fire. It's where if you scoot an inch closer you'll get burned. And the threads, they throb and twist and writhe all the time, it's like they can't sit still and it gives me a headache sometimes so I don't look at him like 'that' a lot. But I've seen the thread when they are still, and it's more then just red, and dark red... There's more there then red, but the red moves around so much you can't see the heart of it. But when it was still, that one time, there was so much underneath; it was warm like all the rest of it, but not burning. It was steady, still, so still after all the movement it hurt, and there were flecks of red in a blue sky, like a night sky with red stars and I saw… Not just a weave but a world under that weave and it scared me a little." Genis had smiled. "But it was as amazing as it was scary and only scary because it was unexpected. It was like glimpsing into a… A place where every dream, nightmare, that ever lived, and I think somehow he draws on it and puts it somewhere we don't see, because it was so vast I don't know where he could put it all!"

Raine had blinked startled by the passion in her brother's voice, looked up from making a sandwich for her lunch, his sandwich sat on a plate before him and he had yet to touch it.

"What does red mean?"

"Passion, anger, energy, love, and loyalty." 

"Sound's as if the passion's contagious, you haven't had a bite of my sandwich yet."

"Oh… sorry…" He lifted the bread, to check to see that she hadn't made a radish and jelly sandwich like she had done once before. Seeing it was the proper brown and purple of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich he took a bite.

"So what does that world in a weave mean?"

"I don't know, I've never seen it before, but it's really cool… umm I mean fascinating."

Raine had sighed, dubbed Lloyd safe enough to trust, but had decided that he was only safe in small doses. If things kept going as they were Genis would be talking like the restless boy, and that was something that Raine did not want. 

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Kind of like yours actually." Genis said, whipping the dishes dry that she scrubbed them clean. They were talking about there latest guest. Lloyd had come over to share dinner with his two friends and had dragged along Colette with him. Raine sighed, just grateful that the thoughtless boy had at least been considerate enough to bring some food over for his impromptu visit. There topic was again threads, or rather Colette's threads, Raine was again having her brother confirm her hunches with his strange gifts. Something that he never seemed to mind doing, she suspected that he liked to look at people and see their 'threads', since he had always –well almost always- described a person's weave as a beautiful if confusing thing. He frowned at a plate, rubbed it a few times more then necessary, a sign he was thinking deeply. "It's pink and gold, the same blend of your gold and pink. But green and pink are so… different."

"How so?" She gently plucked the dish out of his hand so he wouldn't drop it and hurt himself.

"Gold is love, it's a love between family members, something that ties them together, and you both have a lot of that. Green is, growth, it's always steady, slow sometimes, but always secure where pink is not. Pink is soft and weak… no not weak delicate, and rare. I've never seen anyone with that much pink before, but from what I saw I think it's really fragile, but I think it's like gold like the way red is like gold. It's just a different type of love. I can't tell you for sure, and I know I'm not making a lot of sense, I'm groping for an answer and I can't find it."

"There are so many types of love in this weave of yours aren't there?"  
"Yeah it seems weird."

"No," Raine thought about it, recalled a saying from somewhere long ago. "No it makes sense I think maybe there are many different types of love as there are people."

"I think there's only one thing that I do know for sure." Genis smiled at her, the look in his eyes saying that she was going to be teased. "Lloyd's corniness is catchy!" Genis laughed, and then danced aside as she flicked her hand and splattered him with soap suds and water. The dishes were forgotten as they both relaxed and played like the youngest of children for a time.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

The tension eased out of Genis, she could see it fading away bit by bit, and she smiled, feeling faint warmth from inside as she reached for those memories stored away. She looked around, paid more attention to everyone, and was surprised to see that perhaps everyone was thinking of something else then the terror that hovered around them. Colette was holding Lloyd's hand, leaning into the swordsman who was muttering a few soft words, bits of a story to sooth away her terrors. Somewhere in his tale it seemed Lloyd had lost his own fear. Even Kratos looked far away, stroked something under his tunic, and seemed to be as distant from the terror that crouched ahead waiting for them in the ever-hungry dark. 

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

It was a dark tide, a whirlpool, pulling them onward, deeper and deeper in. It was a dread curiosity and a need, a challenge, which pulled them all forward. Shifting his blades around Lloyd peered into the dark beyond Raine's light. He was honestly a little disappointed. They'd been here in the dusty dark for hours and nothing; there were no monsters, no demons, no… anything. Nothing but a dented up box with wheels… a mining cart, yeah that's what Dad called them. The room itself was huge; he looked up and could see no ceiling, looked up and could easily imagine going to the highest point of the trail and digging down all of five feet and falling through the roof of this cavern. They'd been everywhere in these tunnels, walked through the starless night, the starless eternity, and Lloyd had wanted nothing more then to just turn around and run outside. He ached to feel the winds, see the stars and oftlineclouds and… anything but dust and stone!

Yet another way he was not a dwarf, as Dad would put it.

Sighing Lloyd glared at the darkness, man for a place where the monster had to be there was nothing there. He drew his sword, his left sword, and spun it in his hands. That got a glare from Kratos, he ignored the look, lifted his blade and slowly tilted it so that it would catch Raine's light and send a thin beam into the darkness. Nothing… nothing… dust, rocks, something white… Lloyd blinked, swept the thin strand of light on the white thing, it was a skull, a huge skull that just… sat there and decomposed quietly. Kratos frowned, frowned at the skull and gestured for Raine to come forward. What the heck, it was just a bit of bone and, and Lloyd lost his train of thought as Raine walked up to the skull with Kratos standing protectively in front of her blade drawn. The skill was three times as bit as Lloyd's and sported twin horns that made a knot at the base around the temples then swept up like Noishe's ears when they were pricked forward.  
"Weird…" Lloyd moved to join the mercenary who poked the skull with his double edged sword. "What kind of animal has a head like…" The skull rolled to the side. Colette screamed, hopped back and Genis clung to her. It grinned up at them with its jawless smile, a smile that was a mix of human shaped teeth and teeth that made Lloyd think of a wolf.

"Guys don't do that!" Lloyd told his pounding heart to quiet down. "Well it looks like something came around and killed it so the cavern's safe right? No monster no…"

"Who daressss?" Rasped a voice that made the shadows dance and seemed to come from the skull.

"Oh shit!" Lloyd scrambled back, freeing both of his swords and pointing them at the skull. To his horror he saw that Kratos did not pull back. Even Raine was scrambling to join them, the light in her hands wavered in her shaking hands

"I dare!" Kratos snapped, how the heck was he not scared? "In the name of the spirits who guild this world I dare! It is you who dare beast of the Hell Fire, who desecrate this earth and terrorize its people by your shadow!"

"Kratos… ticking it off is not a good idea!" Genis yelled; he was shaking so badly that he could no cast a spell if his life depended on it. And by the way Kratos was going all their lives might depend on it.

"Warrior, champion of thisss world, I challenge ssstrong ones. Ssstrong one?" 

"I can hope." Kratos lifting his blade in a quick salute then got into a half crouch half standing posture that meant he was going to fight.

"Here I thought I was the hot head!" Lloyd walked up to the older man. "You are so not getting into this without me!"

"This is not a game!"

"Challenge, ssstrong one?"

"Yeah, whatever." Lloyd spun his blades, looked around waiting for whatever it was to appear, he pointedly ignored Kratos' death glare.

"Lloyd!" Colette glided up to them; in her panic she had drawn her wings. "I'm coming too!" 

"Ssstrong?"

"I'll do my best." Colette fluttered her pink wings and unhooked her throwing rings.

"Wa… wait I…" Genis ran forward. "I 'll help!"

"No you don't!" Raine ran after him, and they both froze as the skull rolled over to regard them. 

"Ssstrong?"

"Ummm yeah… I… I'm… the best wizard in Iselia!"  
"Oh Genis…" Raine sighed. "I'll fight you, if only to protect my brother and students."

"Begin…" 

And the very earth shook, rolled away from the skull, slid off of it as it glided up until its horn's scrapped against the ceiling and gave it a crown of sparks. The shadows pulled back, but there was no light, but somehow they could all see. Out from the earth rose bones, they clattered and clicked, glided up and assembled themselves like some macabre puzzle coming together. A mad architect could build no more awful a structure then that bone and earth monster that stood before them. Then the air ripped around it, and there in each of its four hands lay a rusted, bent, and twisted, blade.

"Genis, Water spells! Raine Light spells; it's an unholy earth beast. Chosen, Lloyd, stay out of the way!" 

"Ignoring you…" Lloyd growled, charged the beast's right side and learned that though the monster's arms looked like they'd tangle each other, they did not. He hopped out of the range of those behemoth swords, smashed his own blade into the thing's boney arm as it withdrew and cursed at the new nick in his blade. 

"Spread!"

A jet of water shot out from between the stones of the floor, knocked the ftlinebeast from its feet. Kratos charged, smashed his blade into the breast bone, he cursed as an arm swung, tried to knock him aside. He avoided the massive sword by less then an inch, retreated.

Seeing the swords come screaming down, not seeing how Kratos could get out of the way in time, Lloyd did the most dangerous thing in his life. He tackled the mercenary, and all the monster's swords smashed into the ground where Kratos had just been standing.

"I owe you one." Kratos growled. Then seeing the monster turn towards the Chosen snarled an oath and shoved Lloyd off of him. Seeing the danger both swordsmen abandoned words and charged the beast. Silver streaks of light leading in front of them smashed into the monster's legs, knocked it over, but it managed to catch itself by making two of its blades into impromptu legs. There was a terrible fury and hatred that regarded them. Lloyd paled underneath those empty eye sockets, those utterly soulless eyes. What was up with Colette, she wasn't moving, only praying! She should run, he meant to call out to her. Kratos shook his head, and then charged the monster, and Lloyd had no choice but to follow and hope the mercenary was seeing something he could not.

He hopped back as the blades spun, carrying with them waves of darkness, once when he could not pull away he called on his mana shield, and was shocked that the force of his enemies strike sent him still in the orb of light flying. Kratos was having as hard a time as Lloyd, he was slower, only by a hair, but that slowness was making him have to call on his guardian spell more often. Water smashed into the beast, spread after spread and wave after wave of healing mana flew across the air healing numbing strikes of darkness. 

"Oh Goddess grant me thy strength, angel feathers!"  
The beast turned, looked down at the winged gnat that dared call upon a Goddess to challenge it. Three shrieking bolts of light, of holiness smashed into it's thin neck, there was a snap, and the whole frame shuddered. The blades went up, were lined up to slash Colette into pieces.

"No!" Lloyd broke away from Kratos' grip, charged in front of the kneeling Chosen and embraced her, held her in his arms, and even as the blades screamed down he called on his waning power. It was like standing against a storm, the darkness pierced the light of his shield, bludgeoned him with power he could not fight, and still he held onto Colette and the shield, not allowing either to fall.

"Photon!"

There was a loud crack, a flash of light and a sigh… An avalange of bone pelted his shield and then a blessed silence. He moaned, closed his eyes, and then was startled to feel warm hands grab him, reach through the shield… the shield he had let down in exhaustion.

"You idiot!" Kratos had him by the shirt front and was simultaneously holding him up and shaking him. "What in the God's name were you thinking!"

"Kettle calling pot black if you ask me…" Genis grumbled; he was leaning against the wall panting in his weariness like Noishe after a long run.

"Shut up boy!" Kratos' face was covered in dirt and bruised due to the waves of mana that had made it through his shield, it made him look fiercer then normal and Genis had the sense to pale under that visage. 

"Could you… put me down now?" Lloyd whimpered, wondering if the mercenary was going to throttle him, he was shocked when Kratos embraced him.

"Don't you ever do anything that stupid ever again; I have too few… friends to lose any more of them by sheer stupidity."

"He… no biggie, just don't challenge monster mountains anytime soon…" Lloyd blinked, but didn't mind being supported for a bit, the world was spinning around so much and everything was hurting if Kratos did let go Lloyd'd probably just collapse on the nice soft looking stone floor.

"Wow, the world just ended, you got the stone man to show some emotion Lloyd!"

There was a smack and an oww… and everything was back to normal it seemed.

"Colette…" 

"I'm OK… oww that hurt a little though… He was awful big I hate to see what kind of house he lived in before he turned into an icky skeleton."

Yeah, now everything was OK, Ok enough so that he let the dark behind his eyes catch up with him and he fell into slumber in the mercenary's arms.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Drained down to nothing." Raine whispered, pulling her hand away from Lloyd's throat. "His pulse is strong, he's not going into shock, we'll just have to let him sleep it off. And you can stop looking so smug Kratos, he's alive, your training saw to that, now stop rubbing it in."

Kratos said nothing, did not glare, but by the look on him he had no energy left for glaring.

"I think between the two of us we can get him outside. Frankly I don't want to stay here any longer then nessicary."

"Agreed." Kratos pulled away from the wall he had been leaning against and joined her. "Genis, Chosen, get ready to move out."

Seeing that he was being obeyed, once Genis explained to Colette what 'move out' meant the two adults picked Lloyd up and carried him from the now ordinary cave. At the caves entrance, pacing nervously was Noishe. He whined at them in greeting, and seeing that Lloyd was comatose he ran to the boy's packs and pulled out something that looked like rope. Understanding came to Kratos first, the man gently tied Lloyd down to the dog, and they left Ossa, the adults taking turns in keeping Lloyd centered on his dog's back. At the foot of Ossa, where the trees made a thin line of forest that was less then a mile deep they stopped, the star light failed them as they traveled under the shadows cast by leaf and branch. At last after Colette had tripped for the seventh time Noishe refused to go farther and not having much energy to spare they merely threw down their blankets and went to sleep without fire or without deciding on the watch. Raine tried to stay up, she had enough energy to get through a first watch, and was startled to see Noishe begin to pace the length and width of the clearing. He looked at her, his furry green face was... some how stern, she could almost imagine him scolding her for not resting.

Ung that was ridiculous, illogical, her exhausted state must be causing her to ascribe such a human trait to an animal. She smiled, made a gesture to shoo the dog away. He stared at her, made no noise, only stared. It was as if he was trying to talk through that stare. Raine chuckled, ignored the animal and looked around to familiarize herself with the clearing. She rested her staff in her lap, turned away from the fire, away from her blankets that were singing a song of soft gentle song of the oblivion that was sleep. Not now, later, she promised herself. She looked about in the darkness, and was startled to feel something warm press against her. She turned, looked behind her, and Noishe looked down at her.

"Going to share watch with me Noishe?"

He only barked softly, licked her cheek, and then turned to regard the night about them. Somehow, while his licking her would have once made her angry the gesture of an animal's affection Raine blushed.

"You don't have to tell Lloyd I said this," she leaned against the warm furry chest and listened to that deep steady throb of the animal's heart beat. "But for a dog you aren't all that bad."

Noishe winked at her, wagged his tail, then again turned to stare into the night.

It came to Raine then that Noishe might not be a dog, might be as Lloyd put it, a 'special dog'. Certainly Noishe shared little traits with his other canine specie, his coloring and massive horse sized build screamed that he was indeed not a dog. Yet as Lloyd put it, he barked, howled, chased his tale, and played fetch. He acted like a dog and yet only by the farthest strain on the imagination was he a dog. For example, now, he was acting more human then dog like, and it was so easy to think of him as a human, but then come morning when he'd pounce Lloyd and bark and snatch the throw disk from Lloyd's pack and run into the woods with Lloyd hot on his tail...

How confusing, how fascinating! She'd had gone into 'ruin mode' as the children were fond of calling it, but she was just too tired. So with her confusing and strange companion she watched the darkness until at last sleep claimed her. And unknown to her while she slept Noishe went to her blankets, and fumbling with paw and tooth he managed to wrap the teacher in a cocoon of blanket. Seeing that she was comfortable Noishe wagged his tail, padded around the clearing, and until dawn made slow, near silent laps around those he counted on as his closest friends.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Soooo evil skeleton of doom is gone, we zipped in there boom thwack, and a few spells from Genis, Colette, and Raine and poof it's gone!" Lloyd emphasized his sound effects by swishing one of his blades through the air. Kratos was glaring at Lloyd and the man firmly grabbed Lloyd's wrist to stop the slashing.

"You are making me very nervous when you do that."

"I'm not gunna lose my grip on my sword sheesh..." Lloyd sheathed his weapon and Kratos seemed sigh in relief, or it could have been annoyance, he always seemed so grouchy all the time.

"Anyways, you guys did great!"

"Well I am the best wizard in Iselia after all!" Genis chirped, after a full nights sleep everyone seemed to be feeling a lot better and that made her happy. Seeing Genis so scared at the tunnel it was hard to think of him, or any of them, being cheerful ever again. But the terror went away, under the sunlight it was hard to even remember what had been so scary. She skipped along side Noishe, who was trying, in his doggie way, to skip as well.

"It was nothing, really. My spell only achieved as much damage as it did by my focusing the energy on the skeleton's spinal cord and aiming the after blast along the supporting bones in the vertabre."

"Wha?"

"Oh what am I going to do with you?" Raine sighed.

"She means that she his it's weak spots with her spell and it fell apart." Genis sighed. "Come on Lloyd you're not that dumb are you?"

"I know what she was talking about!" Lloyd flared, then muttered under his breath. "Kind of..."

"That's OK Lloyd," Colette called, patting Noishe on his furry head. "Me and Noishe don't understand either."

"Ha, see you're not only confusing me your confusing Colette and Noishe professor!"

"And you are proud of this... why?" Kratos muttered, eyes sweeping every where, he did it so often Colette had to wonder if he missed anything at all. She considered asking him if he knew where all the dust and secret things were on the path but decided against it, and scratched Noishe between his big rabbit-y ears. Colette heard Kratos say to Raine about starting tomorrow with the switch and heard the professor's hesitant agreement. She wondered what they were talking about, then decided it wasn't important.

Colette pulled off a ring, Noshy's fetch disk Noishe perked up, he seemed a little hurt after Colette had said he was confused. Now it was forgotten with the promise of play in her hands. He barked, wagged his tail, and when she threw the disk he went after it with a yip of pure happiness. Noishe bounded after the disk, stopped, turned and began running back to them in terror.

"Monster!" Lloyd yelled drawing his blade.

"No..." Kratos frowned, then he paled. "Everyone down now!"

"What's going on?" Genis frowned at the sky not seeing, and niether did Colette.

The disk came whizzing back, Noishe ducked and it passed over him, trimming his head fluff in passing, and it was then Colette realized her mistake.

"Opps I think I threw the wrong disk..." She squeaked as Kratos threw himself on top of her, she heard Lloyd throw himself to the ground and heard Genis' wail as Raine protected him in the same manner. There was a buzz, a hiss, and then silence. Noishe came up to them, whined and everyone got up. Noishe was giving her an angry look, and she stammered out an appologie, Lloyd offered to carry the throw disk then and she gave him the green padded ring with a sheepish smile.

"I'm sorry Noishe, I didn't mean to..."

"Bark!" He turned his back on her, then rubbed a paw over his head, even more fur came off of his head tuft.

"We don't need assassins." Kratos growled, looking at the tree where the disk was imbedded about half way in. "Just a few rounds of fetch and we'd all be dead."

"Bark!" Noishe bobbed his head.

"Noishe, Kratos give it a break, stuff like this happens all the time and no one got hurt so it's no big deal!"

"Yeah it's a Chosen thing." Genis chimed in. "Stuff like this happens all the time, it's Colette's holy aura that keeps us from getting hurt. No one, I swear no one has ever gotten hurt because of her clumsiness."

"What about the tree branch? I hurt Lloyd then!"

"Nah it was an old tree and was gunna happen anyway." Lloyd smiled, rubbed his head. "Don't worry about it, that branch was nothing compared to Raine, or anything else that's hit me on the head!"

"Yeah Lloyd's got too thick a skull to get hurt by a branch."

"Yep that's right and... Hey wait a second... what's that supposed to mean!"

"Nothing! Hey no! Don't you think about it I'll Spread you into next year!"

"Good then I'll throw you into the puddle you make for two years when I land!"

"Lloyd... that's highly illogical." Raine sighed, and the boys began to tussle around in the dusty road.

"Please, tell me they are not always like this." Kratos wasn't talking to Raine, but to Noishe, and Lloyd's dog almost seemed to sigh and roll his eyes.

"Whine..."

"Genis Sage and Lloyd Irving, we need to get to Izoold, and before we get to town I want you back in that disguise Kratos made for you."

"Aww man..."

"Now then, before you leave Lloyd I believe Mr. Aurion should give you a quick test to gauge your knowledge on the history of Mithos the Hero so he knows where to begin your lessons."

"Eep... Professor, please say fourth months fools... please..."

"Wow Lloyd you get two teacher's isn't that nice!" Colette chirped, not seeing the problem at all. She kind of wished she had two teachers too, she'd do a lot better in school if she did.

"It's the second month Lloyd, how could she say it was a fourth month's fools prank." Genis looked at Lloyd, giving him a funny sad look. "I don't know whether to pity you or be a little jealous." Genis looked at Kratos. "Oh wait now I know which one it is... It was nice knowing you Lloyd."

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

Kratos was giving him a pitying look, a long pitying look and with what guilt mixed in? Man this was vicious, cruel, and evil, he'd never forgive Raine for this. As Kratos' voice droned on and on about some stupid merchant's treaty a tingle crawled all over his hand, a warning, and he jolted himself awake. The first time it had happened he'd ignored it, let his mind wander and had been shocked. At first he had whirled on Genis demanding to know why Genis had shocked him. Now though he knew Genis wasn't doing it, and Colette would never do something like that with her angel powers so it left only one thing. He wished he'd be left long enough to ask the ex-sphere to stop shocking him, but he wasn't.

"Any questions?" Kratos gave him a look that said he better think of one now.

"No... I think I got it."

"Good, then you wont mind a little test will you?"

"Ye- I mean no..." Lloyd paled when those thing brows drew together in a scowl and his voice developed a squeaky note to it. "Not at all!"

Genis snickered, Colette looked confused, and Raine was giving Kratos a smug 'I told you so' look. He wondered if they had some sort of bet going on, where if Kratos couldn't teach Lloyd anything he owed Raine twenty gald or something. He wouldn't have been surprised if there was. As the first question fell off of Kratos' lips Lloyd started, this was not one of Raine's fact questions, but rather something different. He was asking Lloyd to put it together and put his own spin on it!

"Really Kratos, if Lloyd failed the basic fact test about Mithos, a history almost everyone knows don't you think that that's a little too advanced?"

"Ms. Sage, be quiet. I am lecturing, you may talk all you wish when you lecture, I only ask the same respect."

Genis gasped, Colette gasped, even Lloyd gasped, no one told the professor to be quiet, no one!

"I apologize," Raine's tone was icy, made Lloyd shrink back in his chair despite himself. "I'll take my pupils and get out of your hair."

"Thank you." Kratos' tone was also cool... it felt like they were fighting but neither of them had raised their voices, were trying to Raine each other, or anything that made Lloyd think of a normal fight. "That would help greatly."

Suddenly Lloyd was thinking of outside, or making a break for it, that it would be a thousand times safer outside fighting an army of Desian's then it would be to stay in this room. He watched Raine leave, could not get his mouth to not hang open if his life depended on it.

"Well?"

"Umm, could you repeat the question?"

"Good luck Lloyd." Colette called to him as she was being firmly lead away.

Kratos rose an eyebrow, but did repeat the question, and Lloyd stumbled a bit and managed his first answer. It was then he learned that he'd have to draw from the lecture, he had to use Kratos' examples to support his own opinions or Kratos would dismiss them. Kratos dismissed a ton of Lloyd's answers, at least at first, and after the first half hour Lloyd wanted to go back to Raine, her head smacks and bucket balancing was by far preferable to Kratos' mind numbing complex questions and counter questions. After the hour wound down Lloyd would have given every piece of gald he'd ever owned to go back to Raine, just when he felt his head was going to split Kratos cut off the lecture, dubbed him ready then went to Raine's room. Ice settled in Lloyd's blood as Colette, Genis, and Raine came out, and it made a pernament home in his heart when he saw the packets of paper, and all the paper's empty spots.

"She's gunna test me to?" Lloyd whined at the mercenary.

"She's going to test all of us... myself included." Kratos replied, taking a packet of papers without protest.

"Man this is not my day..."

"Since we will be going to PalmaCosta this is a good chance to study." Raine said cooly, putting the paper in front of Lloyd and patting his head. "Don't worry about it so much, it's more a way for Genis to keep in practice for his entrance exam."

"Well if it's to help Genis then OK."

"Thanks Lloyd." Genis smiled. "Maybe today you wont get an F this time."

"I hope so." Lloyd rubbed at his hand, which was now feeling all warm.

"Lloyd I'll do fine, no matter what he gets!" Colette chirped.

"Thanks Colette, you're the best!"

"And this is your standard of education in Iselia?" Kratos muttered to Raine, as he went over the test.

"In Lloyd's case, yes."

"We weren't able to go over the last two segments of your 'assignment'." Kratos pointed to the test. "If you could dismiss him from the seventh and tenth question?"

"I will, don't worry about it. But don't think for a second you're dismissed from it."

Kratos rose an eyebrow, his lips quirked in something too dark, too challenging, to be called a smile.

"I have yet to fail a history exam in my life Ms. Sage."

She laughed at that, startled Lloyd looked up from the questions. Raine rarely laughed, and he was curious what Kratos had said to make her laugh.

"Uh no they like each other!" Genis groaned softly, the three Iselian student had by force of habbit scooted close to each other, putting some distance between themselves and the adults of the party. To Raine they might have looked like they were cheating but they weren't they were gossiping like they would in the old days.

"No way!" Lloyd shuddered. "They hate each other's guts!"

"I think they like each other too." Colette smiled.

"No not like Colette, it's _like."_

"You mean like like... No, that's worse then two nights ago... Are you trying to give me nightmares Genis!"

"Could you imagine if they did... Kratos would be my... Well I don't know what he'd be but we'd be related! That gives you nightmares, what do you think it gives me?"

"Trama?" Lloyd chuckled, ribbed his friend, it was rare he had the upper hand on a situation like this, he wasn't going to let it go just yet. "Evil images to last a year?"

"Try a decade!" Genis gulped.

"I think it's nice that the professor and Kratos are becoming friend's don't you?" Colette asked, not really understanding what was being said.

"Friends that's OK, but boyfriend girlfriend relationship is not OK!"

"Oh!" Colette put it all together and smiled. "That would be so sweet, oh look Kratos is trying to hold her hand!"

"He's pointing at the paper Colette!"

"Is he?" Genis looked like he was going to get sick.

"Alright, that's it, stop it both of you! That's disgusting, we are not having this conversation!"

Raine, Kratos, Genis, and Colette stared at him.

"Um Professor..." Lloyd felt his cheeks going red. "Could we take the test now?"

"What's disgusting?" Kratos was giving him a look that said he better explain himself and fast.

"No..nothing... Could we just get this over with?"

"Lloyd, what were you three talking about?"

Genis shook his head and even Colette looked a little hesitant to have him say anything.

"No..nothing Professor Sage."

"You only "professor sage" ed me when you knocked over the mouse cage and the class pet got away."

"I swear that was an accident! Look you of all people don't want to know, really honestly you don't want to know!"

"Why wouldn't I want to know?"

Lloyd coughed, looked outside and found the sight of the still muddy streets interesting.

"Genis!"

"I don't know anything!"

"Colette..." Raine had a strained look on her face, never had Genis and Lloyd banned together so long to avoid saying something to her.

"Please Professor, I don't want to get anyone in trouble!"

"Well, it seems as if they don't tell you everything after all." Kratos chuckled, it was not a pleasant sound.

"Mr. Aurion, be quiet, alright, can I at least get out of you that this little secret of your isn't going to hurt anyone?"

"No, it wont." They said at the same time, wearing three similar expressions of relief.

"Well except for nightmares with me but..."

"What was that?" Raine gave her brother a look that said she was going to persue this if they gave her any ground to work with.

"Umm nothing!" Lloyd ribbed Genis when the adults shared a look of bafflement. "Shut it!"

"Alright, if everyone's ready?" She gave them a look that was silently commanding them to rat and tell the secret, Lloyd would sooner eat his own tongue before saying anything. "Let's get started."

Xxx xxx xxx

"I'm worried." Raine admitted, sipping her coffee, the mercenary was awake, the only other person in the room that was. She had the tests on the table, was grading them, and was receiving quite the surprise with Lloyd's test. While not A work it was certainly C work and she was rather pleased. "I don't know which concerns me more, that Lloyd's grade might be a sign the world's ending, that their all keeping this little secret so well, or the fact that Genis was saying 'please don't marry him' in his sleep earlier."

"You honestly think that they were discussing you and the mayor?" Kratos sipped his tea, going over his test now that Raine was done with it.

Raine found it strange that Kratos was sipping tea, it put in her mind images of old men and woman puttering around a fire talking about the latest gossip. An image that did not fit the surly mercenary in the slightest. She half expected him to enjoy drinks of a more... potent variety. But then she imagined most swordsmen to be hedonistic barbarians. Kratos' rather spartian way of living confused her, he seemed to take no pleasure in much of anything or anyone. For example he was drinking more out of force of habit, not really registering any contentment in his actions. He did not roll the liquid on his tongue, nor guzzle it, rather he seemed focused on the motions of drinking and little else.

"Who else could it have been, only that man has given Genis nightmares, Erik scares my brother, not that I blame him in his fear."

"From what I saw of him, and his son, I would not blame you or him in the slightest. I had to step in to keep that boy from harassing your brother and Lloyd."

"Genis didn't mention that, neither did Lloyd."

"They didn't see me do it, I overheard the bigot say something rather cutting about elves to his friends, say something about teaching the runt and freak a lesson, and I stepped in at that point. You may have noticed that the mayor did not see us off that morning, he was probably infuriated by the fact I gave his son a black eye for daring to draw a blade on me."

"I imagine so." Raine chuckled. "I wonder how he felt having a complete stranger defeat him, he's more cocky then Lloyd and they are or rather were fierce rivals." Raine's eyes went distant recalling the thousand and one 'accidents' she had to treat Lloyd for. "I hope he doesn't return to Iselia, I pray he doesn't, Ivan's been getting more and more vicious when he wins. The last time... was not pleasant."

"You have a talent for understatement Raine." Kratos finished his cup and set it aside. He moved to get up, yet Raine's intense gaze made him hesitate.

"Why are you teaching him? Not the swordsmanship, I understand that, but why the lectures? Why pay for his swords? You are... being very charitable to him. Very companionable, where you are not to anyone else."

"I like him." Kratos said slowly, as if fighting something deep inside to say those words. "He's a good person if a bit young and in need to do some growing up... but weren't we all at one time or another? Rare is a swordsman with a good heart, a good conscious, and I like that in him. I admire him, for seeing a path with no tangles, for seeing a road that I feel I have lost. He, reminds me of someone I lost, someone who died, who I failed to protect." Kratos rolled the cup in his hands, seemed to be talking more to himself then her. "Perhaps in teaching and defending him I can finally redeem myself for my past."

"If it's not prying..." Riane coughed, felt uncomfortable with those eyes boring into her. "Who does he remind you of?" It was cruel to ask that, tactless, but something told her that the answer of that question would mean everything. If he felt guilt, if he was so lost as he sounded, so pained. His judgement and actions might be skewed, if he was seeing Lloyd perhaps as a little brother or friend then Raine would intensify her watch on the two, would be very careful to make sure that the friendship between the two swordsmen would not poison and twist into something that would hurt her pupil.

He stared at her, his face haunted, tortured, for once his mask of detachment was gone and she could see for one second so much pain that it made her tremble. His response, his answer, only two words made ice slide down her back.

"I will retire to my rooms now." He said stiffly, the mask was back, and she looked up to see his uncaring expression. And had she not seen it down, just for a second...

"Kratos, he's dead, Lloyd isn't..."

"I know." Kratos said, and while he seemed to be agreeing Raine had to wonder if he really did. "I've known that for many years, but is it so wrong to be reminded, to recall?"

"It will hurt him if he ever thinks you consider him this way, he might reject you. He has a family, a strange one I'll admit." She smiled, recalled that after all she was an aunt to the boy. "He wont think of you the way you want him to, and it will hurt you to know that the only thing you'll be to him is a friend."

"It wont hurt me in the future, it does now." Kratos whispered. "Rest well Ms. Sage." And with that he left her room, and alone she swallowed down her tears of pity.

She picked up Lloyd's paper, ordered herself to finish the work, to not let this get to her. She could not read the writing, it was as if he wrote it in Dwarvish script. She lowered the paper, set aside the feather quill pen, Kratos' words echoed in her mind.

_My son_.

For once, in the first night since she had started teaching, she did not finish her grading the night of the test.


	10. PalmaCosta prt1

Reveiwer Responses,

InuKratosStan: A novel and a game writer have to have different skills, I probably can't write a good game but I can write a good story, so I'll stick to what I do here. There's a few Kratos, a little Colette, and a lot of searching for a potion. E-mail me if you want some lessons in writing 'K

Serrated Darkness: I hate "game guilde" novilizations too! This is more of a fluff chapter, not too balanced, but don't worry by the time they leave PalmaCosta there will be a little bit of everything that's gone on.

Eevetta: Thanks, and here it is!

Fallen Star Angel: This is shorter and less balanced, hopefully it's still good.

Melody of Shadow: Well PalmaCosta looks like it's going to be three chapters (makes Izoold seem short huh?). Thanks for the info on the Sword Dancers, it'll help me alot later on.

To my readers

Surprised, trying to pump out as much as I can and Shards wont suffer any lack of updating till time's up. Fixed Kratos' age reference with this chap. will fix up older mentions latter on, the 'hidden' part of Lloyd's oath is hinted at in the chapel, OC hope he's not a Gary Stu material, and for a lot of material would you believe I'm going to have to have even more chapters just to cover PalmaCosta... Looks like all they did was get the potion (sweat drop) Oh well... BTW CatlingColette.. it's a nick name.

Kasan Soulblade

PalmaCosta

Chapter 10

It was a race between Raine and Noishe on who could get off the boat fastest. Noishe won, having the benefit of four legs and Genis won five pieces of gald. Grumbling a little Lloyd paid up, and the group got off of Max's boat. Before anyone could say anything Raine and Noishe decided that the race to get off of Max's boat should turn into the race to see who could get into shore first. They charged through a mess of people, annoying customer and shop keeper alike with there mad dash.

"Man what's up with them?" Lloyd muttered, watching the huge ships alongside them have massive crates pulled out by way of rope and pulley. He watched boats loaded up with goods and others have them lowered, he was gawking, he knew it, and hardly cared. Sailing looked like you had to be really strong to do it, and though it looked really tough, but it seemed worth it. He smiled recalling the strange grey fish -dolphins Genis had called them- that had swam by them, there smiles and eyes seemed knowing, as if they knew the greatest joke and if only they could talk... Lloyd had dared to go to the edge despite Raine and Kratos' protests, and just by the thinnest streak of luck managed to pet one of them. It was like petting something wet, warm, yet not exactly slimy yet kind of slimy, it was hard to explain. For his efforts he'd gotten a face full of water and the thing had swam off chuckling. Later that night, for it had taken a few days and nights to reach PalmaCosta, he had woken to Kratos stepping over his bed roll. Through partially closed eyes he saw the mercenary kneel down by the edge of the boat, one of the grey dolphins popped out of the water sending a spray of mist up with a hiss. Kratos had chuckled, and petted the creature, then fished something out of his pocket.

"An offering, may the Lady of Mist grant us safe passage across her realm... And a snack."

There was the sound of teeth snapping on something, a fish probably, and then he caught a glimpse of wood, he thought it might be a ring, then it was gone, given to the weird fish thing. There was a chitter, a loud splash and Kratos staggered back sputtering, in parting the dolphin had decided to slap it's tail against the ocean and soak the mercenary. There was a chuckle from the creature, a kind of squeek chirp, then nothing more.

You so like animals. Lloyd thought to himself as the mercenary easily got off the boat. Legs feeling a bit weird he managed to not fall flat on his face, though it was a near thing. Colette wasn't so lucky.

"That' was fun!" Genis chirped. "And fascinating, being on a boat certainly helped me figure out how they work, now that I better understand I could..."

"Genis you're Raine side is showing." Lloyd said, rubbing his head and telling himself that his legs would stop feeling all weak and twichy in a little bit. "Though the boat thing was cool."

"It was fun, lots of fun don't you think so Mr. Kratos!" Colette chirped after Lloyd had helped her to her feet.

"It was... memorable." Was all the man said.

OK fine don't use words we can't understand. Seeing the expressions of comprehension on Colette and Genis' faces he winced. OK fine that only I don't get. He was in a bit of a bad mood, not the same kind of bad mood the professor had been in, nor had because he been sick like Noishe. It annoyed him that he hadn't figured out how the boat worked, he'd been paying attention because he had wanted to learn but he hadn't picked anything up about sailing. Shoving his frustration down he told himself he would not let it spoil exploring a new town, and perhaps see an old friend who lived here.

"So where too?" Lloyd asked, eyes going every which way as he tried to absorb everything that was going around him and was having a bit of a hard time. This place was so noisy, there was movement, color, everywhere, and the smells. Fish was the nicest of the smells and there were other not so nice smells hanging about the harbor. He felt like his nose was going to fall off, his ears were going to curl up with a whimper, and his head was going to split. Iselia had never been this loud, neither had Triet, this place was so huge it loomed over him and was making him feel small. He took Colette's hand in his own, and they shared a look of understanding. So she didn't like the large and noisiness of this place too.

Kratos gave them a glance, said nothing, but he too understood, having once been in there position long ago.

"There's an inn nearby, I suggest we book rooms and make our plans from there, once we locate Ms. Sage of course."

"Alright!" Genis was all smiles, not effected bu the noise or largeness of the city and that annoyed Lloyd just a bit. "You know there's a university there, it's the biggest one in Sylvarant."

"I'm aware," Was it Lloyd's imagination or did Kratos sound annoyed. "You've mentioned it before."

"About twenty times now Genis!" Colette chirped.

"Oh I did?" Genis was all but bouncing in place in his eagerness, and Lloyd had a sinking feeling that if they let him lead they would be going straight to the university place. "Well not only is it the biggest it's helped produce some of the greatest works of..."

"You have said that too." Kratos snapped, so Genis' endless talk about the university was actually getting to Kratos. Lloyd tried not to laugh at that, he would have figured nothing got to the mercenary.

"And it specializes in..."

"Mana research, theory, scientific research, theological studies, etcetera." Kratos was all but dragging Genis down the dock. "You have mentioned that as well, and you are staying in my sight until we reunite you with your sister, and no exploring or wandering off."

"But..."

Kratos tightened his grip on the elf's arm and Genis wisely fell silent.

"She better not have run off far for your sake, if I hear one more breath about this university I swear I shall..."

"Hey since we're here why don't we take the 'entrance exam' thing that you have to do at the university." Lloyd said with a grin. He was going to flunk it if he took it, he knew that, but the opportunity to get under the mercenary's skin was just too tempting.

Kratos' glare could have killed him, and Lloyd smiled innocently back.

"Isn't the school right by the chapel, Tylor said it was didn't he?" Colette frowned. "I don't remember because he said it a long time ago... But we should go to the school, I bet Raine would love to go there too, it'll be so much fun!"

"Yeah, let's go!" Genis began to run off, and so enthusiastic at the prospects of seeing the school and maybe even taking the exams he made the mercenary stagger, and all but dragged the man down the docks and to the street. Still holding Colette's hand in his own Lloyd raced to catch up, Colette keeping pace with a fast skip.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

A corner and a trip, it's all it took, and there was a large man with a red tunic glaring daggers at Colette. The poor child she doesn't deserve this, doesn't deserve to be treated so harshly. Raine stiffened, glared just a s fiercely as her pupil, and agreed completely when Lloyd growled "Appease my anger... do you know just how stupid that sounds?"

"Enough," A woman in a dull orange dress whispered, grabbing the rash swordsman's arm. "Let's not get into a fight over this, let's have them just replace it."

"Replace? That's it?" Both red clad youths were giving each other hate filled looks and without that young woman's steadying hand on the youth in red he probably would have drawn his sword and started fighting Lloyd right in the middle of the street. Raine felt a touch of pride in the fact that while Lloyd obviously was angry he was not pushing things, while he probably wanted to whip this specimen of flawed humanity from the earth he was not doing so.

"That's all we'll do." Raine said in an ice flecked tone, and the young adults lead by there childish swordsman glared daggers at her. "It's against the law to draw weapons in this part of PalmaCosta," She pointed out with a very open show of smugness. "All we have to do is call for the city guardsman and you wont be getting your potion, just a trip to the nearest prison cell."

"You wont tell no one about..."

"Enough!" Snapped a girl in white, she would have been pretty save the lines of anger around her face. "Fighting would be unseemly and would attract attention, we agree to your terms."

"I'm sorry..." Colette, the poor girl sounded so scared but so genuinely apologetic. Raine gently took her hand, that gesture seemed enough, seemed to reinforce Lloyd's words that it was OK and make the enraged man's words fad into there true insignificance.

"Sorry, I'll make you..."

"You will do nothing." Kratos' voice was a whisper, he did not draw his blade, but radiated pure malice. Braver people then these would have shivered and drawn back under such a tone. "You will do _nothing_."

But you will die, that's what the tone promised, if you dare hurt her you will die. For the first time Raine wasn't unnerved by the man, she genuinely scared of him. When he spoke like that, in that tone, he sounded like he could kill you just with a thought. That his thought, his will, would be then end of all thoughts, of all life. Colette dropped her gaze, shivered, and Raine put her arms around her pupil to warm her from the cold bitting hate that Kratos held like a weapon pointed at these four fools.

"Chosen." It was a command, and one none dare disobey. The four jerked at the title, as if with guilt, yes there was guilt but no shame. Frowning Raine wondered, worried and wondered about many problems all at once. Colette started to slip out of Raine's embrace to join the mercenary, and looked surprise when Raine did not relent her grip. Still having an arm draped around those pale shoulders the teacher went with her student. In this mess of uncertainty there was one thing that Raine was sure of, she would leave none of her students alone with this man, she dared not. Kratos Aurion may have earned the children's trust but this show had just as firmly broke all the comfort that Raine had gathered about this man. She could trust him with there lives, she would not like it, but she could. She however could not trust him with the welfare of her charges outside a crisis, outside of combat, because when someone could speak like that...

Though the sun shined above her, though there was little odds of her ever going on a boat yet again, Raine shivered. And wondered for not the first time who Kratos Aurion was, and who was she to trust him?

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Yo, shrimp!" The red clad man wearing a mismatch of steel armor and clothes ran up to him as they walked down the street. Lloyd paused, waited, and against his better judgement let the jerk catch up. Swallowing a large number of words in dwarvish that could have made him live off soap for twenty years or more Lloyd glared at the swordsman.

"What do you want?" Lloyd growled, keeping an eye on the others so he knew where they were going.

"Next time we meet, your mine, got that?" He'd heard more terrorfying threats from that blue haired Desian in the ranch, Hell Ivan was more creative then this guy. Rolling off the insult and the threat Lloyd turned. A hand fell on his shoulder spun him around. "Are you so stupid you don't understand a threat little boy?"

Wrinkling his nose under the foul breath Lloyd said nothing, only glared at the person who threatened him, he'd not give the satisfaction of an answer. He couldn't see the others and having been on the brunt end of enough of Ivan's threats he knew how bullies worked, they got their prey alone and had there way. They had two faces, the mask of kindness and sympathy, and the drool rimmed grin of animal pleasure as they made the hits fall home.

"Let go."

"The old man's not going to be there forever to watch over you, and when he's gone you better watch your back."

When with a smirk on his lips the man turned, a swagger to his step. And why shouldn't he be arrogent? He'd won, Lloyd had lost, Lloyd had given ground and not fought back. Disgusted with himself, he ran to catch up with the others.

"Problems?" Was all Kratos said, seeing his expression and perhaps understanding.

"Lloyd, is something the matter?" Raine too voiced her concern, a belated echo of the mercenary.

"No, it's fine... I'm alright."

Genis met his gaze and he understood, and also understood how "un alright" things were. They both knew that with Ivan, and knew it in a way that neither of the adults could. The faint tingle that traced the spine and the slight clenching of the belly that marked all such close cuts with Ivan in Iselia, Lloyd and Genis might make light of the mayor's son's influence over them both with Raine and the other adults, but never with themselves.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"This place looks friendly!" Colette chirped, smiling at the flowers in the window and the pink draperies.

"It looks like it's ran by women," Kratos sighed. "It's bad enough how they shop I tremble to think how they run stores."

"Would you like women to merely sit and wait for prospective husbands to come around? Is that there only purpose because if that's your outlook on the world you would be the most ignorant, foolish, and may I mention _dead_ man in the world."

Kratos said nothing, only scanned the sign, muttered something that sounded like 'typical', and went to the door. He froze at the sight inside, but was firmly pushed in by Raine, who perhaps thought that there was some memento to feminism inside that was making the man freeze up. Smiling, just wanting to see what else was in the pretty shop Colette followed her mentor, and it was just Genis and Lloyd.

"If it's a evil store and they have ribbons, perfume, and clothes..." Lloyd began, but there were more then warnings between them in there unspoken code between them.

"I throw down a smoke spell and we bolt."

"And then we keep very far away from Raine and Colette, we play sick or stay with Kratos so that they don't drag us here after to make us... like in..."

There were not words for the horror of last time, so as words forsook them they in turn abandoned words and stepped into the flower wreathed door way with dread that was all too quick confirmed, not by the merchandise, but the three Desian's inside.

"No,"

"What did you say little girl?" Hissed one of the men in his trademark black uniform. His helmet was off, laid out on the table between him and the human woman before him. The three other black clad men were wearing slick black uniforms with same dyed leather over the cloth, the were openly admiring some of the merchandise.

"I think little girl I'll take this."

"You wont unless you want to meet this!" The girl lifted what looked like a club. She brought it down on the helmet on the table, steel crunched and she gave the men a fierce look. "It'll be you next if you put your paws on anything of my Mom's! So you can either pay like everyone else and pay the normal price or you can leave right now." Looking at the Desian who was now the owner of a ruined helmet Genis felt something in his gut clench. The points on the man's ears were small, barely noticeable, he had slightly prominent bones all along his face, ever so slight slant to his eyes, but for all intents could have passed as a human.

His voice was pure venom and Lloyd tensed up and grab his swords. Genis gripped his kendama, words of power forming behind his lips so that he could leap in the way of the Desian if he struck down the woman.

"I told you the price I was willing to take your filthy gels for now take it!"

"I said no, I will not sell you gels at that price. I offered you a fair price, pay as much as everyone else or don't by you filthy Desian."

"You're a gutsy one aren't you little girl?" He reached across to touch her, wisely the woman took a step back, and lifted the club menacingly. "Very gutsy, it'd be fun to have you at the ranch... Shame we exceeded the kill quote, but who knows, Lord Magnius might decide to lift that little exception and cut off that pretty..." He thrust his hand out, caught the girls chocolate brown locks in his fingers and forced her head down against the wooden table. "Little head... Hell I might just do it now, executions are so much more fun to carry out then to watch after.. Urk!"

While pinned the girl had not been idle, she snatched up a plate and firmly brought it against her assailant's skull. It shattered on impact, and holding one of the jagged edges like a knife she swung and drew a thin line of blood across the Desian's face.

Tears in her eyes, face scrunched up in defiance she glared at the half elf, who was wisely taking a few steps back.

"Forget it, we'll exceed the quota. We need permission to put the people in this hovel in their place."

"You hear that?" The Desian growled, whipping the stream of blood off, and in the effort merely smeared it about. "We'll be back, and your actions will lead to a massacre, how's that make you feel human scum."

"Try it, we have an army and Dorr will defeat you!"

"I'll take you up on that little girl." He hesitated, then rubbing his fingers together, the fingers that had held the girls hair he smiled. "And if not, there's always next year isn't there?" Laughing the black clad man bowed mockingly, snatched his helmet, and still running his digits together, left the store. Muttering amongst themselves the Desian's paid no heed to anyone else, stepping around them all like they were like everyone else they'd seen in PalmaCosta. Whipping off a bit of sweat Genis let go of his kendama, and Lloyd hesitantly relaxed.

"Chocolat? Is something the matter?" Came a age worn voice from the stairs.

"Nothing Mom!" Quickly the girl picked up the bits of plate and tossed them in a basket that was under the counter. "Just some pushy customers!"

"Pushy?" Genis muttered to himself awed by the young human's strength. "If you call that pushy I hate to see hostile!"

Grinning at him, green eyes sparkling with humor she winked at him then put a finger to her lips, telling them all to not talk about the Desian's he guessed. A woman, not old but sporting a hand fill of streaks of silver in her brown hair, came down the stairs and smiled at them. Her face... Genis stopped breathing, he knew those soft blue eyes and that kind smile! He'd seen it for almost a year framed in steel, age worn hands reached through bars to gently ruffle his hair in comfort with the loneliness got so bad he cried...

He almost said it, almost said the name, and suddenly he had to leave to get out. Claws, hands, they were getting confused in his mind.

"Are you alright little one?" The voice was different, smoother, he focused on that to keep from bolting.

He felt Raine's eyes on him, and he forced himself to straighten, to smile though he didn't quite feel it on the inside.

"I'm fine."

"I am Cocao, and this is my daughter Chocolat, who is dabbling in lying and doing a poor job of it."

"Moooom! I was not... I mean..." The young woman flushed, tugged on the hem of her skirt. "I handled it so it's no big deal."

"Handled what?" An eyebrow went up, a silent challenge that all parents could issue to there children and cow them in all without words.

"I'm... going to be late for work Mom, I'll see you later!"

The woman who had stood up to Desian's, who had almost lost her life in the store and did not flinch, ran from the wraith of her Mom. Genis understood that, he'd rather face monsters over a mad Raine any day. Cocao eyes were following her daughter, giving her a gentled version of the Death Glare, and for now the younger woman was getting away but years of having that glare on him told Genis that Cocolat was not going to get away forever.

"Well," Cocao sighed. "I can't say I'm sorry for what you've seen since I don't know what it was she has done." She bent and picked up a shard of bloody plate and slowly put it down. "I imagine that it was upsetting however, but please, relax, we have the chairs out for a reason." Those eyes crinkled up as she smiled that too familiar smile. "Have a look around and if there isn't something that you see that takes your fancy well I might have some of it in the shed... and if it's not there then I can tell you where to go."

Xxx xxx xxx

"Chosen, a word with you." Kratos whispered, wondering why he sounded so mad Colette joined him.

"Yes, Mr. Kratos?" She smiled at him, he didn't smile back, but he never really smiled as far as she could tell.

"Why did you cut me off when I was going to say you were the Chosen? Do you understand that if we do not get a discount on this damned potion and we have to pay for it with our own gald we wont be buying anything else such as food for example, for a long time?"

"If... if the potions means so much that they make it really expensive it has to be expensive for a reason."

Kratos rose an eyebrow and Colette wondered what he was trying to say by doing that.

"Your point being?" He said at last, sounding very annoyed. He sounded even more annoyed then the Mayor when she tripped once and made the Mayor fall over into a puddle.

"If it's expensive then that means it cost a lot right?" The mercenary frowned, he looked very scary when he frowned. "It would be stealing if we took it."

"Chosen..." The black clad man sighed. "While morals are a good thing in this world there are times when you must be pra-"

"You're not just steeling from one person but everyone." She said firmly, cutting the man off and telling herself not to tremble when he stared at her with his mirror eyes that saw everything but gave nothing. "Th..the people who make it, and make the glass it's put in, if you don't buy it you steal from all of them too... And I don't want to hurt those people just because it's easier then buying it."

"You surprise me Chosen, I thought that those of your station were taught to merely accept all that was offered for the regeneration. To have a conviction that runs counter to that you are trained to believe... I am surprised. If you believe in this so strongly we shall try it your way for a time."

Seeing Raine come out of the shop with an angry look on her face Colette understood that the potion was no more cheaper there then it had been three shops ago. But there were a lot more shops in PalmaCosta, a lot more then there were in Iselia and Triet put together, one of them had to have PalmaPotion on sale. So she'd just wait, because if you were doing something good for someone else, in the end it always worked out. So she'd just wait for it to work out!

Looking at the Professor's mad scary face Colette hoped that the wait wouldn't be too long.

xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Man why can't we go to that shop!" Lloyd was firmly being dragged away from the weapon's shop by an annoyed Raine.

"Lloyd, no!" She tapped him sharply on the nose with two fingers in the exact same gesture you use to scold a puppy. "They wont have a potion there so we aren't going there!"

"But..."

"Not now!" Raine snapped, there were very strong overtures of 'come' and 'heel' in her voice.

"Yes Professor..." rubbing the bridge of his nose the young man sighed. "It's still not fair."

"Don't worry Lloyd, we'll find it soon!" Colette promised, her cheer and hope never seemed to flag even in this trying time of endless shopping, but then she was a carefree soul who would have found little to complain about during a natural disaster like say a hurricane.

"Perhaps it would be best to break up into two groups, I could take Lloyd to the weapons' store, purchase other suplies, while you three look for..."

"Will you leave your 'client' alone in a city that none of the rest of us have traveled through?"

Kratos frowned, that comment had come too fast to Ms. Sage's lips. Something was wrong, whether it was his foolish show of honesty in Izoold, or something else he had said or done, she seemed hesitant to leave him alone with any of the children for any length of time. He stared at the teacher, showing nothing of his thoughts saying nothing of his insight. At last he nodded, for now he would agree to this, attempt to win back what trust he had lost for a short span. If he didn't it honestly didn't matter, she wasn't the one he was to protect. Earning and keeping her trust would make things easier, but it was not crucial, there were only two -no one- who's trust he must earn, the rest of them didn't mean anything to his goal. He must remember that, never forget.

"As you will."

xxx xxx xxx

Raine was mad again, she was yelling this time. Shivering Colette drew back, found a quiet little corner with a large dusty barrel and sat. Her feet were hurting, the cobblestones seemed so hard compared to the dusty roads and grassy fields they had walked through so far. Seeing Lloyd's concerned look she smiled, tried to make nothing of it. Genis wasn't aware of anything, having found a large book on one of the shelves he was curled up with it, for just a little bit forgetting the world. Kratos stood, or rather leaned against the wall eyes closed, arms crossed, he was keeping his promise and not saying anything about her being Chosen. She wished he would open his eyes so she could smile her thanks at him, but Colette had a feeling he wouldn't understand that she had more then one type of smile. Lloyd did though, he once said that she had a language of smiles and she had told him he was really good at reading them. He'd blushed, scuffed his boot, and muttered something under his breath that she hadn't caught and she'd changed subjects because he seemed so uncomfortable. He read, like all the other times, the strain around her lips and knew that something was wrong. Seeing the adults were busy he joined her on the barrel, it was a tight squeeze but Colette didn't mind because she put a arm around Lloyd to keep her balance. He didn't seem to mind either, and so they sat and rested while Raine yelled, Genis read, and Kratos napped. She wondered, with just a twing of worry about Noishe. Was he OK, the city guards had not liked him walking around town, had siad he was disturbing order, so they had taken him away and said that once they found a place where they could keep him that they'd let him go. Poor Noishe he must have been so bored where ever he was, she hoped he was comfortable. Blinking Colette stiffened in Lloyd's grasp, she couldn't have heard that just now could she?

"Lloyd," She whispered, not wanting to bother Kratos who was sleeping standing up less then ten steps away. "Do you hear that?"

"Bells?" Lloyd's eyes lit up. "You don't think-?"

"It has to be!" She slid off of the barrel aching feet forgotten. "Let's go see!"

"See what?" Kratos had opened an eye and was staring at them. If Colette had a language of smiles Kratos had a language of stares and long looks. It made him scary sometimes because he never smiled, he never laughed, he just looked and saw and thought things that she wondered if any of them would understand.

"Can we go outside Mr. Kratos, please, just for a little bit?" Colette begged, her hands were clasped together in front of her and she smiled her widest most hopeful smile.

"Fine," He ran a hand through his hair then in a very nice act opened the door for them. He thoughtfully closed the door behind them, maybe acidently closing himself out of the shop, but then perhaps it wasn't quite so accidental, he seemed a little less grouchy now that he wasn't in the same room with a mad Raine

"What's this?" Kratos smiled as a group of shrieking children swarmed the street and carried with them a wave of laughter. Merchants, mercenary, and travelers were pressed against the facades of the buildings by the chearful mob of twenty very young children ran about calling out for a tiger. They ran around looking under signs and in one youngster's case under rocks, they scampered around and lifted cloaks much to the mortification of wealthy men and were firmly scolded to keep from bothering the ladies in a simular manner. "It looks like they are searching for something."

"Can't you hear them..." Lloyd rolled his eyes and ribbed the mercenary "They're looking for a tiger, sheesh, I thought you were smart Kratos."

Kratos looked about to say something cutting when a small hand tugged on one edge of his cloak.

"Excuse me... but have you seen a tiger mister?"

"A tiger? No I haven't seen a fierce great cat at all."

"Not a kitty, a tiger!" The dark eyed girl protested, giving the adult a look that siad she thought he was being aweful thick.

Lloyd chuckled at Kratos' expression, he wasn't taking that child's annoyence very well. He looked even more surprised when the girl lifted his cloak and looked undernieth, not finding her tiger she went off with the group of children that were gathering in the center of the street. Colette giggled, Kratos looked so silly when he was blushing!

Suddenly a length of rope with small little pouches tied all along it's length that stuck out every which way appeared. It was drapped over the edge of the short roof that jutted out from the shop, all the buildings had those little roofs, only one had the rope that was all but an inch in front of Kratos' face. The pouches were all died black, the tail itself was covered in flaking orange paint. Two boots adorned with bells sporting black stripes joined the tail, they jingled, proving to be the source of the sound they heard earlier.

"Yes tigers are rather fearsome beasts, quite rare too if I understand it." Came a conversational voice that drifted from someone who was on the roof. "Please, you seem distressed by all this take a chocolate from the tail in compensation."

"Can we all have one?" Colette asked.

"Of course Catling why do you ask you can alw..." There was a strangled note and the tail and boots disappeared. Ten fingers gripped the edge of the roof and a head wreathed in flame hued hair appeared. "Catling!"

"Father Tylor!" Colette smiled and waved, she wished he'd come down so she could hug him.

"You're a priest?" Kratos gapped at the man who smiled back.

"Yes, and those highest in my order after my nomination made it policy never to consume the holy wine ever again for tasting purposes, at least that's what they tell me."

"Tylor, why'd you pull the tail away?" Lloyd whined, spoting him Tylor's emrald green eyes nearly doubled in size.

"Lloyd! Is that you! You never mentioned that you'd grown so huge, sweet Martel you're as tall as I am now!"

"Nay you're still taller."

"Phht like H..." He coughed. "Umm you know... Aye me we have a problem now..." With whoops and cheers the children were spotting him and about ready to charge the shop. "Catling, I'll need half an hour to shake of my tail's tail, if you can could you meet me at the main chapel in the plaza then?"

"Of course!" Colette chirped.

"Right then, I'll see you then. If any guards men wielding my bane come could you... give them wrong directions?"

"No problem Tylor." Lloyd promised, having done so often enough in Iselia. "Roundabout?"

"You have yet to lose your touch. Till later then!" The jingles wandered off and the children pointing and laughing chased after there tiger, who was trying to shimmy down a gutter. He was ambushed, his tail pecked at by little hands, and with a few well timed 'pounces' where he gently spun a child around managed to create enough confusion to break free and make a break for it. His tail's tail was right behind him the tiger jingled down the streets, white robes now filthy from his illegal roof climb flapped about him.

Kratos stared, strangled and then turned on them both.

"He knew you, both of you?"

"He was a priest in Iselia when we were little" Colette told Kratos, wondering if he was angry.

"Remember the time I got the tail off!" Lloyd chuckled. "Man I was a demon at that game."

"Yeah that was funny... though Tylor hopped about real funny after."

"That's because his pants came off, he tied the tail to his belt and lost both of them."

"I remember! Remember the time he stuck the tail on Noshy!"

"Yeah, Nosihe ate all the candy..."

As Colette and Lloyd told their Tylor stories Kratos did not show any scorn, but strangely an interest. He listened to them talk, eyes going every which way seeing everything like he always did, but on the corner of his lips was an ever so slight curl. Something too small to be a smile on anyone else, but for Kratos it was probabl a real normal sized smile. Happy to see him happy, happy to see Lloyd happy, and to see Tylor and know she'd see him agian later Colette was all around happy. Even when Raine came out of the shop asking them where they had been in an angry voice it didn't do anything to make Colette any less happy.

xxx xxx xxx xxx

"So he was a teacher?" Kratos frowned as they stood side by side back to the shop, eyes facing the world. Raine, Genis, and Colette were inside yet another shop and Lloyd had a sinking feeling that half of the town was shops, Kratos' adament refusal to enter another building was echoed by Lloyd so the men got to wait outside while Raine continued to look. "As well as a priest... it seems unlikely..."

"He's a good priest!" Lloyd snapped, hopping to the defense of his friend without a thought.

"He just does not seem... normal for a priest."

"Oh.. well he isn't, he isn't like Marche, the guy who replaced him. He was kind of like Phardia actually."

Kratos rose an eyebrow at him and Lloyd rolled his eyes.

"I'm understanding you even when you don't talk, scary. OK despite how old Phardia is she used to do stuff like Tylor did for a long time. She'd tell stories and lead the children in games and stuff. At least that's what Dad told me. Anyways Tylor came when I was four and he'd do games like this all the time, used to say that if he just preached we'd be bouncing off the walls so we shoudl do something about that energy and if we gave the old grey beards more grey good for us."

Kratos' lips twitched just the slightest, it was as close to a real not bitter laugh he'd yet see from the mercenary.

"That's an _interesting_ way to handle things."

"Yeah, he's really cool like that." Lloyd smiled. "He liked my stories, Phardia, Marche, they didn't like them and wouldn't listen so I learned to stop telling them, but Tylor liked them a lot. He was the only priest who really didn't try to force me to join the Martel church, all the others were trying and kept at it so I just stopped going to church and stuff when I was little so they'd leave me alone." Lloyd leaned against the wooden wall of the store, staring out into the street but seeing another dusty road flanked by large green trees. Swallowing his homesickness the swordsman remembered all the pranks and games Tylor would play with the children. "He once tied the tail to the Mayor and told him he was getting a little on the large side, he claimed the tail could fix that. I've never seen the Mayor run so fast in my life, it was great!" Lloyd sighed. "They made him leave after I turned eight. Colette said the angels told Marche to come to Iselia but it wasn't them... Tylor told me the truth when he thought I was old enough to understand. They don't like him, the higher up preists because he isn't 'proper' so they keep him here where they can keep an eye on him."

"Why doesn't he leave if he finds it unbearable?" Kratos asked, sliding his hand over the hilt of his sword.

"He's a person first, a priest second, but that second is still a big thing to him. That's what he said to me when I asked him. Anyways after he left I wrote him, keep writing him... That's how he knew me and Colette right off, because I'd draw him pictures and write long letters every chance I can."

"If your drawing is as good as your carving then you must be quite an artist."

"Hee.. I'm not that good..." Lloyd blushed, ran a hand through his hair.

Kratos only favored him with a long look, and it was one of the one's he couldn't read yet. Shrugging it off Lloyd stared at the flow of people, though he was at ease his eyes were moving here and there, looking for something that felt wrong, out of place, more "Kratos Training" is Genis called it.

"I'm glad that you had a good childhood Lloyd."

"Hmm what's that?"

"Nothing." Kratos was focusing on the people around them, frowning Lloyd spared a glance in the shop to see Raine trying yet again to get a store keeper to bring down the price of the potion. "It is not important..."

"So, what was it like when you were little?"

Katos snorted, favored Lloyd with an amused look.

"I barely remember being young, those times are long behind me."

"Knowing you I bet it is, you're what fifty something?"

"Twenty eight." Kratos sounded a bit offended and Lloyd laughed.

"That old, you're ancient!" At Kratos' glare of death Lloyd chuckled. "Oh come on, you act way too serious to be just twenty eight."

"Meaning I don't act inmature like certian swordsmen?"

"Hey, I didn't go that far with you sheesh who'd of guessed old men like you would be so sensative about there age."

"I'll remember that when this old man is whiping the floor with you next sparing match."

"You had to say that didn't you?"

Lloyd nearly lost his jaw when Kratos laughed, a laugh that was not touched by bitterness.

"Yes Lloyd, I did."

Having no counter Lloyd only rolled his eyes and joined in with a laugh of his own.

Xxx xxx xxx

Kratos wondered how in bloody hell these people 'received' there potion. The members of this Regeneration journey certainly wouldn't be paying for it anytime soon. It was three shops later and they had found the prices going up insteed of down, his patience was completely spent, ad even Colette and Lloyd wre showing signs of exhastion and frusteration.

"There is no way we can afford the potion, even if we pooled all of our gald together." He said curtly.

"It can't be that bad." Lloyd protested. "How much is it here?"

Kratos named the price and Lloyd forgot to breath for a long moment.

"Now what?" Raine sighed.

They all stood, the merchants of on the street trying to coax them with calls of what wonders there stalls possessed, but if they were honestly going to be buying that potion they best learn how to live off of air and forget about eating, sleeping in inns, and taking other normal comforts for several years.

"Father Tylor might be able to help us, he asked him to come and we are nearby the temple, at least that's what everyone else is saying." Colette offered. "He always knew what to do before he left Iselia maybe he can help us here."

"That's a great idea Colette! Come on!" Taking her hand in his own Lloyd ran down the street then turned to his friends waiting for them to catch up.

"We've tried everything else." Raine sighed. "Let's see if this Tylor person can help us."

Xxx xxx xxx

"Scuze me!" Lloyd dashed up to the nearest white robed priest. "I'm looking for a Tylor Aruu-valen Sancrest can you tell me where he is?" Blinking in surprise at the red clad boy's lack of formality the priest made a slight gesture in the direction of a knot of children and went back to his reading. "Thanks!"

The man ignored Lloyd's words and went back to his book, oblivious to the world and noting the boy only as a heart beats distraction.

Pounding up the steps of the temple, taking them two at a time, Lloyd far outstripped Colette and was first to see the priest. Silver robes with a small lumpy hat on his head, he'd traded his old black tiger cloak and tail for a green casscot. He looked up, saw Lloyd, and the children he had been teaching turned as well. Blinking for a moment, then rubbing his eyes, the middle aged man with fiery red hair stood and a smile cut through his pale beardless face.

"My Goddess Lloyd, is that really you? I still can hardly believe it." The children all around him looked up and stared at the young man in such outlandish garb. "My you have grown!"

"You think I've grown you should see Noishe, he makes me look like a little kid." He said as he embraced the man who had been like an older brother to him. He blinked back the tears in his eyes, and knew that Tylor was doing the same.

"Lad... I can't breath..."

"Oh sorry..." Lloyd let the priest go, and the children around him giggled. Strangers, travelers running up to Tylor and embracing him, weren't all that uncommen since he was a man who had been nearly everywhere in the world on his pilgrimages and had made a large number of friends in his travels. Lloyd felt a small hand tug at his ribbon that dangled around his neck and he shook his head much to the delight of the children around him who laughed as the fabric tickled them.

"I'd have to see it to believe it." Tylor replied once there was enough air in him to do so. "I was just telling this pack of youngsters all about you, one of my favorite stories as a matter of fact is how you fell asleep standing during a sermon..."

"Father!" Lloyd flushed. "I only did that once..."

The children laughed as Lloyd hung his head and scuffed a boot.

"Actually," Tylor chuckled. "I was telling them that story of yours about Syhin and Aska, and as you would put it, turning it into a sermon." At Lloyd's rolled eyes Tylor laughed. "It comes with this my Son, saddly it's not all tiger hunts you know, I have to play the role from time to time." Tylor shook one of the green lengths of fabric that hung from around his neck. Tylor stood, arms outstretched in an offer. "It is so good to see you again..."

Lloyd feeling like a little kid again he went into that embrase and hugged his old teacher, being careful this time to not hug as tight.

"Colette, Catling!" Tylor smiled, let Lloyd go, and was half tackled half hugged by Sylvarant's Chosen. "My you have grown into a beautiful young lady and you have been taking notes from Noishe I see."

As Colette and Tylor talked, slipping into that language that Lloyd didn't understand he looked at the massive pillars that held up the building's slopped roof. There were large statues on either side, feline guardians with bristling manes, and they guarded the large oaken doors gilded with what he though might be gold. Holy symbols, people with wings were frozen on that wood bowing to some sort of flower that stood without stem or root in the center of a sun. There were twenty two steps he had climbed up, happiness had blured them down to none existence, and now that he thought of it his leg ached from the run. Still the slight pain did nothing to bother him, it was good to see Colette so happy, and he had a feeling that the talk between the priest and Colette was not serious, it sounded almost like baby talk to his inexperienced ears. Seeing Raine, Genis and Kratos down below he waved to them. They came, being weirdly heistant, what was there problem it wasn't like Tylor was going to bite them or something...

"Lloyd, is this Tylor?" Raine asked.

"Yeah, he was the teacher before you came..."

"You must be Ms. Raine Sage, Lloyd has told me so much about you!" Tylor siad, switching back to the normal language so that they'd all understand him. "I hear you have managed to tame some of those Iselian wildlings! Goddess above should I kneel at your feet and praise the fact that you managed to get Lloyd to actually go to school? It is a merrical of the most highest order to get him to come to any type of lessoning." Tylor reached out and ruffled Lloyd's hair. "Heavens know that without Noishe literally dragging him and plunking him into that desk of his every day he'd never have come when I was teaching."

Spotting the young elf hiding behind his sister Tylor grinned.

"And _you_ must be Genis Sage, well met young man, Lloyd has been no less descriptive of you and your great mental prowess in his letters. Before you go you must let me write you a note of recomendation to the Dean of the college in your name. That way you wont have any problems going in to take the entrence exams..." Tylor blinked at Kratos, his warm smile though did not faulter an iota. "And you good sir are the man I shocked by my strange behaviour it seems. Do you have a name by any chance?"

"Kratos Aurion your holiness." Kratos managed a sketchy bow.

"Of stuff _that_." Tylor snapped, sounding a bit annoyed. "I'm no more holy then these old paving stones, though I do think that I am starting to rival them in age."

Kratos actually chuckled at that.

"I doubt that sir, unless you are going on the age three thousand, which I think was the time this city was built."

"Hmmm I'm not that old though this one." Tylor ribbed Lloyd. "Certainly carried on like I was the most anchient thing in the universe."

"Father!" Lloyd protested, face turning hotter.

"Just teasing, you weren't that bad... but very close to it. Now decisions decisions... I'm supposed to be watching this pack of imps until thier parents return." The 'imps' laughed at that. "But oh to chat with someone about something non-religious for five minuetes..."

"Professor, Noishe's whistle, we can call him and he can play with the kids! Would that help Tylor?"

"Lloyd wonderful, it is only times like this when your wits move so fast." Tylor patted his old student on the shoulder, ignoring the loud protest that his wits moved fast all the time.

"Hopefuly he can get to us from where he is.." Raine said as she blew on the whistle. All around her the children were a chorus of questions and anticipation, having taught long enough she encouraged them to be patient in a matter that made them all the more eager for the surprise but kept them quiet.

"Father Tylor... umm about Noishe..." Lloyd coughed. "He went through another growth spurt that lasted for well three years or so... So he's really big now."

"Nonesence my lad he couldn't have gotten..." Spoting the huge silver and green blurr taking the stairs four at a time Tylor paled. "Sweet Goddess, Lloyd hold this." Lloyd took Tylor's hat. "Catling... if you would?" Colette took the cascot. "You old dog there you are!"

Noishe skid to a stop then seeing Tylor his ears perked up. He then took the steps eight at a time, and they could see his eyes squint up in happiness.

"Ah me, this is going to hurt I think... You old rouge what in Heaven's name have you been eating growth potions day in and day out! Get over here you mutt!"

Noishe pounced on Taylor throwing him back three feet. Laughing the priest ruffled Noishe's fur, not caring for the moment that he was sprawled out on the stones that served as a floor to the temple.

"No, no stealing, those were for you younging-lings!" Noishe pulled a candy from Tylor's pocket and wolfed it down despite the priests vocal protests. "Alright you mutt, you asked for it!" Using his brawn the priest managed to turn Noishe over. "Alright, now for reinfocrements... Don't worry younglings he's big but he had one weakness, he's ticklish, right... here." Tylor poked at Noishe's paws. "And here.. and here..." Gasping Noishe tried to run, but several children had swarmed him and began to tickle. "Now when he tells you to stop little ones you best stop, because if you don't he wont give you any rides."

"Like a horsy?" Chirped a boy.

"Yes, just like a horse." Lloyd grinned, ruffled the child's hair. "Just do as he says and you can all get rides."

Chuckling Tylor lead them to the empty chapel, keeping an ear trained at the partial open door. Insides more angels looked down upon them. There eyes were brooding, there faces filled with what was supposed to be holy rapture Lloyd presumed. In his opinion they looked really weird, happy but sad at the same time.

"All the priests seems so different here then how you were in Iselia." Lloyd said, thinking of the priest that he had talk to to get directions. He sat down on a bench, absently crossing his legs.

"More stuffy you mean?" Tylor sat, his robes pooled around him. "Most of them are sticklers for formality that's why they stuck me with the younglings. I wont go all formal rigamaroll on them and I let them talk, something that a lot of the older priests wont do. Please," Tylor swung his legs so they rested on the bench, in response to the look of outrage on Raine's face at Lloyd's behavior. "I'm no formal priest and boot prints can be washed off by the accolites. Take a seat, make yourselves at my home away from home. Now news news news, I must be informed, last you wrote me was during the autumn festival and I ache to know everything that's happened since then."

xxx xxx xxx xxx

"A shame my Brothers died due to the Desian's actions, but this occurence is not uncommen... it does little to help the pain though." Tylor sighed. "And so now it begins. I am sorry that this has happened to you Colette and under such tragic circumstance. And do not say _this is my purpose_ you know my feelings on that kind of talk and I _will_ argue with you about it."

Colette only looked uncomfortable

"Aye my child, I am sorry to upset you, farther proof I have far too much fire in me to be a good priest."

"No.. don't say that Tylor.. you are a good priest, the best priest ever."

"I doubt that little one..." Tylor smiled, though his face was sad. "Now if what I heard is true then I owe you, Kratos, a great deal of thanks. It is a relief to see them both safe and I know you will continue to keep them both well."

Kratos nodded, having offered nothing during the conversation but a brooding stare. Lloyd could easily imagine the mercenary up there on that ceiling with those firece looking armed angels that glared down at those who dared look up. He wondered if the painting up there was supposed to scare people into not looking up at the sky, because if he had seen that day in and out when he was little Lloyd had a feeling he'd be really scared of the sky.

"Not one for talk is he?" Tylor said to Genis, still writing on a piece of paper in his hand. He was using a copy of the book of Martel in a most questionable of ways, as a desk. "How do you spell your first name again?"

While Genis gave him the proper spelling Raine looked over the young human's shoulder and gasped in shock. He was keeping his word, and from what she could make of the leter he was writing the priest was piling praise on Genis in such a way the college would not turn him out.

"There we go, thank you young man, and best of luck with your aplication." Tylor handed the boy the letter. "Keep an eye on Lloyd for me, you look to be one of those mature types, and he needs lots and lots of those around him."

"Hey!"

"My Son, how many times have I told you yelling in a chapel is not appropriate?"

"More then I can count." Lloyd flushed. "Sorry Father Tylor."

"Now then, I can not believe the audicy of those travelers, making you pay for there own foolishness. While I can not honestly give you enough gald to cover that bit of PalmaPotion what I can do is subsitute... if you can keep a little secret that is?"

"We can, if it keeps gald in our pouches." Kratos said before Colette could protest.

"Good." The chapel was empty, it was a huge room filled with angels and off to either side were doors, doors that from Tylor's letters lead to the personal quarters of the priests who lived in the chapel. None of the other holy men were present, the bulk of them were off to bless the army and the others were on pilgramiges, despite that Tylor slinked to his room like a thief and came out a few moments holding a bottle that had a very familier purple liquid inside.

"Palma Potion, but priests..."

"Shh!" Tylor pointed to the ceiling. "I'm already on bad footing with them Ms. Sage let's not make it worse. It's only half full but put some water in it, give it a good shaking and I bet those travelers wont be able to tell the difference. Now then if I can borrow the swordsmen for a bit I'll go with you and we'll pay back those... men in full." Tylor sighed. "I hate not being able to properly curse sometimes, ah well, shall we be off?"

xxx xxx xxx xxx

"You have it, what the hell took you guys so long." Growled the man in red, his face almost matching his shirt.

"Do not try my patience." Kratos snarled, handing over the bottle.

"Or wha- ya gunna try to hurt us shadow boy wiht your freaky friend in red?"

"Easy..." Tylor murmurred, holding both Lloyd and Kratos' fore arms.

"What's the priest here for?"

"To represent the honesty in these men's souls, for no man of any honor would lie in the presence of a priest of Martel. Please good sir's and young miss have they not paid you in full? Is this not an honest exchange? We are greatly sorry that such a thing has come to pass while these younglings were on an errand for me."

The group of roughs flinch.

"And since you have forced them to pay for this potion I certainly hope you know that thier honor has greatly cost the church much in way of her coffers. And while it would be easy to play the blame game such a thing is not the way of Martel, they are making a penince in way of pilgramige and you younglings will as well."

"What'ya mean by that white coat?" Snarled the leader in his red tunic.

"All houses of Salvation will know you right down to the last detail, I've sent messangers with descriptions on the road an hour ago and well... 'A multitude of humble duties shall befall those who so hold to honor and through these tasks they shall gain true enlightenment'"

Lloyd snickured at the other groups leaders expresion and Tylor pinched his arm,

"What that means my brothers in humanity is that you shall have to work to gain entry at any house of salvation... Oh but do not thank me, it is only my place to guild those already on the path of enlightenment to higher levels and fully reach understanding of the Goddess and become one of her exhulted." Tylor's grin was vicious.

"You son of a..." The leader drew his sword, and gasped in shock as Kratos calmly pulled his blade from it's sheath and pressed it to his neck in less time then it took to blink.

"You were saying something?" The mercenary whispered.

"I.. I was sayin' nothin' nothin' at all..."

"Good, keep it that way..."

"Come on..." The girl in white hissed. "We have what we need, let's go."

"I'll remember you guys..." The leader growled as he left, his eyes promising pay back. "And I wont forget this."

"Poor benighted souls.." Tylor shook his head in mock pity. "Martel guard them, from monsters, thier own stupidity, and certain monosylibic mercenarys."

Lloyd laughed. "Thanks so much Tylor, it means a lot."

"My pleasure.. oh and before you go." Tylor waved a hand and muttered something in that wierd language he and Colette had been talking in. "There! You are both absolved from lieing, telling partial truths, and from feeling violent urges for a week... now let's head back before I think of other sins to safe guard you from and make both of your lives boring."

xxx xxx xxx xxx

Tylor grinned waved them too the chapel, and said he had buisness elsewhere, but it was Lloyd he saw the truth. He saw the white haired priest in the shadows of the pillars, saw the glare, and knew that Tylor was probably avoiding punishement. Sighing at the sight of Marche, Lloyd ignored Kratos' curious look and pointedly ignored how the elderly priest went in with them. Marche seemed intent to ignore Lloyd as well, and caught between the two tense people Kratos caressed the hilt of his blade on reflex. When Colette smiled, went up to Marche and bowed to the old man and went through the formal ritual of greeting Lloyd hung back in the shadows, took a seat at a pew as far away from the others he could be and still hear what was said. In short he took the seat Kratos was eyeing.

"Ah there you are young one, will you come and recieve my blessing?" Marche of course knew the answer, but for some reason he always asked.

"No thanks." Lloyd did not meet those pale blue eyes, did not look at Raine to see her anger at his lack of manners, did not look at Colette to see her hurt. If it didn't mean anything to him, if his stories weren't that important he'd have accepted the blessing just to make Colette happy. Marche would try to pressure him into making a oath to the Goddess, to give up his stories, his non-human Dad, as he had tried all the other times, and Lloyd wasn't going to go along with that that.

"I see you haven't changed Lloyd, I shall pray to the Goddess that you see the error of your ways."

Lloyd only shrugged, and stared at the armed angels, they seemed less hostile then Raine was right now so he'd look at them.

"Lloyd you should be more polite to your elders-" Raine began.

"He was being polite, he get's worse if you force him in my company for some reason." Father Marche smiled slightly. "It is a matter of intamecy, he wants all around him to make a home in his heart, and it is my duty as a priest of the Goddess to make my heart a home for the Goddess. I could not oblidge to his wishes and remain a proper vessle of my Goddess' faith. Add to the fact I replaced Tylor when he proved to be inadequite for his post... he has not forgiven me for that."

Lloyd stood, eyes blazing, swallowing his words of anger he turned and began to walk to the door.

"He isn't a bad priest, he's not empty like the rest of you." Lloyd growled, forced the doors open and slammed them shut behind him.

Marche only smiled, it was a slight habbitual gesture that did not reach his eyes.

"I shall pray that he sees, that the temptations of sensation and passion fall from him and he comes to the light of the Goddess."

There was a bit of motion by the door, it opened, closed, and Kratos Aurion abandoned the priest. Left the old man to speak his words to the Chosen and elf siblings who were by far a more receptive audience.

xxx xxx xxx xxx

"Let me guess in one word of less, Marche." Tylor said, finding a very angry Lloyd pacing one of the docks that ran by the chapel. "I saw your mercenary friend, he's looking for you by my guess."

"He can look all he wants..." Lloyd snapped, then realizing what he said flushed. "Damn it Marche really pisses me off and I don't mean to get mad at you or Kratos but I am!"

"I understand." Tylor smiled. "He has a way of hitting all my sore spots in a heartbeat, add that he's my superior... Do you want an ear?"

"No... Thanks but no..."

"Alright then." Tylor sighed, "Well I'm going to bring my timeless remidy for Marche by in a bit, hopefully it'll help us both. Till then." Jingling, because he never took off his bell boots, Tylor walked back to the main land, probably planning to go in the temple and jingle through the chapel just to annoy Marche. He'd done it often enough when the two priests had to work side by side in Iselia for a few months.

Humming a jig, tapping his heels together every few steps to make the most racket possible. A few people he knew either rolled there eyes at the town's lunitic or smiled and waved knowing he wasn't as crazy as he seemed. A quick search turned up the mercenary fast enough, he was going the wrong way so Tylor gave him some directions and then went back to the temple. Smiling as the man clad in shadow hued clothes began to walk onto the docks Tylor decided to add his secret weapon to his boots. Tieing on the dangling strings a number of small rocks he clattered and jingled into the chapel, and the look of anger on Marche's face was worth even Catling's stare.


	11. PalmaCosta prt2

Review responses:

GamecubeGirl1: Tylor's in Red Earth, the last chapter introduces him. I liked that dolphin Kratos thought too, that's why I wrote it. I guess even Kratos has a few soft spots huh?

FallenStarAngel: He's a mix of my Creative Writing teacher and someone I knew when I was younger. The hostility between him and Marche is based off of the rather choppy relationship between me and a ultra-conservative religious artist that used to be my beta reader.. He stopped shortly after this fic guess I finally went to far in questioning religion in this story. Any way Tylor's mine. 100 based off my life-experience-imagination hodgepodge twisted mind. I liked giving Chocolat some backbone I hate the "helpless" types of maidens that don't do anything for themselves. Yes there will be a scene, the final chapter in this set is going to occur at a night in PalmaCosta, and a lot's going to happen, one of them is a scene with Genis and Cocao. And that's alright, a lot of people really do accept a religion as there own and don't understand that none believers would not find comfort in the symbols the said religion is made up of. Think of it this way, better to learn it now, then later. I never thought of my story having hidden morals, guess It'll resonate differently with each different reader hmm... resonate... Yes (you need to stop being psychic you almost seem to know my story before I write it lol) the university will occur in just a bit (AKA keep reading) thanks for your high quality reviews!

Eevetta: I think in Asguard all will be made clear about the oath, it's a bit of a wait but I figure it'll be worth it.

Lil-Samuu: This coming from an author who's storys I so admire I take that as a very high compliment. Thank you, and here's a little more of the fic.

Melody of Shadow: Hence "fluff" chapter warning lol. Yeah the religion of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla will actually be different; hopefully you'll see the differences when that time comes. I love filling in plot holes hence why I write fanfiction. Well thanks... and was Kratos that obvious? Yeah I'm floored with the amount of review's I'm getting, it blows my mind away just how many people are liking this!

A/N: A light beginning, dark hintings, and an end in starless shadows. Lots of Raine Genis moments, some Kratos Lloyd bonding, and one heck of a fight that will define a lot of the relationship between Raine and Kratos and Kratos Genis interactions… In response to questions some thread explaination and mana stuff is in detail. With the way things are looking I may need to bump up the ranking, some ideas on that would be appreciated since I'm bad about self raking. Everything's done on my PalmaCosta outline save the extra's so I'll get those in next chapter and Finally they'll be off and on the road which introduces the charming reality of time/travel difficulties… Wish me luck and enjoy this chapter.

Kasan Soulblade

Chapter 11

PalmaCosta part2

Of threads and other things

The gulls wheeled above, there wings whispered against the winds, there beaks open to spill out high pitched cries. The winds also carried not so pure sounds of Lloyd cursing. He handed ten gald over to the priest and ten to Kratos, the way things were going he'd never have enough to buy anything ever again. This was going to be there last game, well in Lloyd's case it was going to be his last game, if Tylor and Kratos kept going at it he'd just watch, the game was just getting too costly for him. Sailors who had boats on this dock rolled there eyes, walked around as black clad mercenary, snowy white clad priest, and the red clad Iselian swordsman. As Kratos put it when Lloyd cut the first hands, it seemed like a mad mans fancy that a man who dealt death, a child, and a priest would all be playing cards together. Poker no less, Tylor had added, wallowing in sin and gambling what a picture they all made. They'd all chuckled and they went back to playing... Well Tylor and Kratos did, Lloyd went back to losing. Looking over his cards Lloyd stopped breathing, made a squeaky sound and with a muttered "all in" tossed his whole money pouch on the pile.

Kratos rose an eyebrow, ordered him to take his pouch out. Lloyd ignored him, eyes wide as he just stared at his hand. Kratos repeated himself, and getting no response spared a glance at the priest. Tylor was frowning, a rare sight indeed, and looked to be counting something in his head and was not liking the sum.

"Out." The priest turned his hand over, and it was a good thing he forfeited because his hand was better then Kratos', the mercenary would have lost a bit of glad had he pushed his bluff.

Kratos looked at his hand. Frankly it was a crappy hand, only worth a handful of points, and the fact that Lloyd was practically drooling over his hand said one thing. It was a royal hand, with the monarchs of blade, staff, flame, and cross on each of his cards the swordsman who was incapable of bluff had gotten phenomenally lucky. Counting his twenty gald as lost Kratos turned over his cards with a sigh.

"Out"

"Really, wow I won it all back!" Lloyd chirped, putting down his cards so that they still couldn't see them. Taking the gald the swordsman grinned at both adults, and slowly counted up his money. Humming a little tune Lloyd leaned against a post that jutted out from the dock.

"Oh for the love of Martel let's see it!"

"See what?" Lloyd's lips curled into an over innocent smile.

"The cards, your hand!"

Kratos took Lloyd's cards and turned them over, it was a mismatch of suits and numbers. It came to a grand total of zero points.

"I believe we've both been had." Kratos said as he showed the cards to the priest.

"Damnit Lloyd, what have I told you about lying in this game?"

"It's called bluffing, and dwarvish vow number seventy eight, have fun, play lots, and 'win' lots."

"Not those again!" Tylor groaned, "Dirk was bad enough all on his own, then you came along and now there are two of you running around quoting those things."

Lloyd merely stuck out his tongue and Kratos snorted at the show of childishness.

Another hand was cut, and Lloyd shook his head, after that last gamble he had enough of the game it seemed.

"So, Lloyd mentioned you were a teacher in Iselia..."

"Woah... small talk from you, the world's ending!"

"Let's hope not young one. Yes I was, what of it?" Kratos shrugged, and at the gesture Tylor snorted. "Mr. Aurion, no offense but the fine art of conversation has eluded you."

"Like a person would avoid the plague." Kratos admitted, falling back on his brooding stare that seemed to pull information from people's heads.

"I was the teacher, certainly my long list of lessons and lecturing wouldn't interest you since you seem to have the manner of a man who's been handed some education of some kind."

"Self taught." Kratos explained, and Tylor whistled.

"Damn.. I never would have guessed, you almost act like a professor from the university... well except you don't flaunt it of course but..."

"Tylor, how can you tell, I mean Kratos could just be acting smart..." At Kratos' glare of death Lloyd dropped the trail of thought.

"It's how he talks, people with education put there words together differently then you and I. There's always this hint of structure and planning, and they tend to use long words and avoid contractions."

"How's contro... contra... How's that important?"

"Contractions," Kratos corrected. "Where did you learn how to talk?"

"Where'd you learn to be a jerk, is there a school for that?" Lloyd countered rather lamely.

"Excuse me?" Kratos rose an eyebrow, but there was a hint of fire under his tone that made Lloyd think longingly of going back to the temple and getting into a fight with Marche.

"Lloyd, you must respect your elders, he was correcting you, not bullying, appologize."

"It sounded like..."

"He was being snippy, yes." Tylor ignored the lesser version of the death glare that went his way. "But he had a point, now then you can either apologize or I can fetch a black board, which is it going to be?"

Wincing Lloyd muttered something under his breath.

"I'm sorry, my hearing's not quite what it used to be, age and all that, what was that?"

"I'm sorry..."

"For?" Tylor crossed his arms in front of his chest and gave a stern glare that made Lloyd writhe in discomfort.

"Calling you a jerk, it wont happen again..."

"It best not, or you'll be writing that out a hundred times, and if it happens again after that it will be a thousand."

"Yes sir,"

"Something's don't change I see..." Tylor rolled his eyes. "You've always had trouble with authority."

"Humph…" Kratos gave Lloyd a long look, and between Kratos and Tylor Lloyd was starting to feel like a window. "I accept your apology."

Grudgingly, Tylor mouthed once the mercenary's back was turned. Lloyd bit his lip to keep from laughing; if he had trouble with authority it was easy to see where he picked it up from.

"So, you have the cards, cut our hands already, stop beating around the bush, and I'll tell you what you want to know."

Much too there surprise Kratos did so, and they spent the next hour in easy conversation all the while playing cards and ignoring the glares of those around them.

xxx xxx xxx xxx

"No way!" Lloyd stared at Tylor. "Dad would have told me about that!"

"It's a point of shame for him, the fact you kept running away looking for your blood family isn't something that he likes to remember. You stopped after about two years of living with him... I'll admit that it gave us a break since only your father and I were the only ones who ever took your disappearances seriously. I personally think that Erik hoped we'd come back with news of you dead, you were as much a shame to him as you were to your dwarf father in those days."

Lloyd felt like his mouth was hanging open and it never would have closed again.

"Erik wanted to take you in as his own, thought that Dirk was completely unsuited to rear you and half the town agreed with him." Tylor frowned at his cards as if they had said those things. "The other half didn't care. You know how much the church preaches human superiority, that's where the belief came from. I doubt you remember but I actually found you on your first attempt to run away, and it was a good thing I did too. That snake almost did you in. Regardless Dirk asked 'you' if you wanted to stay with him or the mayor, and you openly picked Dirk in front of a crowd of the townspeople. Erik lost a lot of face that day, you hit his pride hard, and from how Ivan and Erik treated you your actions haven't been forgotten."

"He was what, five?"

Tylor shrugged, and Lloyd blinked at the vehemence in Kratos' tone.

"Trust me, you don't know those two, they hold grudges forever." Lloyd offered Tylor his water skin and the priest took a sip. "And you know how much of a bas-" Tylor scowled and Lloyd coughed. "...jerk Ivan can be."

Looking up Tylor grimaced. "Ah me... trouble... here hold these for me."

Tylor thrust the deck of cards into Kratos' hand. A shadow fell upon Lloyd and thinking it was a sailor he lolled his head back against the pillar and looked up. A very old but stern face looked down at him. The face curled into a sneer, it was a priest, he wore robes of white silk and the ribbon that was draped over his shoulders to indicate the burdens of humanity that he carried was crimson.

"Most Holy Voice of Martel," Tylor bowed, and despite himself Lloyd grimaced at the sight. "I am humbled in your presence."

"As it should be, Father Tylor. Tell me, where were you during this afternoon's service?"

"Aiding Colette."

"Colette?" An eyebrow rose, while silence fell between the two priests there was something spoken, something hostile.

"The Chosen, if you want to call her that, I've always liked Catling personally."

The older man ignored that. "And will you be gracing us with your presence for the evening's services?" He said in a nasty voice.

"If Catling doesn't need me to help her around town, and if I'm not busy with the duties the Holy Circle of Martel thrust upon me, then yes."

"And what is this sin I see before me?" The old man eyed Kratos coldly, and the mercenary returned ice for ice. Lloyd was surprised he couldn't see his breath it was that cold between the two.

"He is a conmen man not a priest, so his little foray into vice isn't something that the church should concern itself with." Tylor said calmly, and the snowy gaze from the old man snapped onto him.

"Your opinion is of little concern to me Father Tylor. All sin is the concern of the church, after all we bear it's weight, to us it is a yoke which rests on the ox's shoulders." The old man lectured, stroking the length of crimson fabric, there was gold embroidery on it, hints of symbols could be seen in the folded cloth. If that was a yoke, Lloyd thought to himself, then it's an almost none existent one. "Tell me are you a follower of the true ways?"

Kratos made a scornful sound in his throat and shuffled the cards, which seemed answer enough to the old man. Lips curling in a sneer he turned to Lloyd. At that Tylor frowned and Kratos stiffened. The old man stared at the black fabric that wound around Lloyd's hand and hid his mother's momento.

"Most Holy..."

"Your silence is required now Father. Tell me young man, did you know black is an unholy color?" The older man knelt, stared at Lloyd in the eyes with his black orbs. They flickered in the sunlight, caught the light and reflected it in shattered fragments. Shivering, thinking of a bug's eyes Lloyd drew back, or tried to. Thin fingers stroked his arm, like the caress of a praying mantis before the claws dig in and kill a bug. Lloyd jerked his arm back so fast he nearly upset the priests balance. That didn't stop him from shoving his arm behind his back however.

"I didn't know that." Lloyd sat on his hand and the priest's eyes burned into him for being denied. Shivering the swordsman felt his voice quake right along with his body. He could see a praying mantis in his head, the first he'd ever seen before; its hands bowed in reverence, seeped in red, ripping, tearing, into the flesh of a small baby field mouse. "But then I don't follow your church either so it's not like I care."

"You spend your time with heretics Father?" Was all the old man said as he got to his feet.

"They travel with Colette." And for some funny reason Tylor seemed smug when he said that. "They are her friends."

"Watch your tongue Father, it drips the venom of sacrilege."

"I speak the truth, ask her if you feel like it."

"One does not put questions to the Chosen of the One."

"Then one doesn't get an answer does he?"

The man only glared, and it would have broken weaker men then Tylor. Reaching out with his talking staff the old priest snagged the end of Tylor's cascot with the silver tip and with a flick of the staff sent it to the wooden dock. There was a long moment when the priests glared at each other. Then Tylor picked up the green fabric and slung it over his shoulders, and something of the motion seemed defiant. Grimly the older man lifted his staff, set the tip right to Tylor's nose.

"I'm waiting and watching, the second your break your oath I'll be there, and this..." He tapped the dirty cascot. "Wont be so easy for you to reclaim then picking it out of a puddle."

Tylor, still kneeling, shrugged. Sputtering the old man walked off and Tylor made a face to his back.

"There's an Erik in every town isn't there?"

"Yes," Tylor stroked the filthy fabric. "And unfortunately they like power, so they tend to get it. But don't forget he's one man Lloyd, just one out of a hundred thousand, there's one Erik in every town but there are hundreds of non-Erik's everywhere else."

xxx xxx xxx xxx

Blushing Colette joined them. She had been speaking for a while in the language that no one understood, but her words, whatever they might be soothed the crowd. Genis felt for her, he'd be so scared if he had to talk in front of everyone. Lloyd's friend Tylor had been whispering a running translation of Colette's words for then, and it was then Genis decided that for a human Tylor was nice. He hugged Colette, who he kept calling kitty...catling... something cat... and kept his promise to them. He took them to the university despite how Kratos kept hinting that he needed to go somewhere else. At the feet of the great college, at the massive stairs leading up Tylor gave Colette a parting hug, Lloyd a parting pat on the back, and Genis a wink.

"You'll do fine kiddo... I'm just more worried about the professor's laughing themselves to death when they get Lloyd's answers."

"Ouch..." Lloyd muttered. "I'm not as bad as I was before Tylor, honest."

"Sure you aren't..." Tylor knelt down and said in Genis' ear in a conspirator's manner. "He wrote down for when was the Kharlan War: A long time before I was born. Did that when he was eight... I doubt the answers changed since then."

Recalling how Raine had started laughing when she read Lloyd's general knowledge exam Genis figured it hadn't changed either.

Without another word Tylor jingled off down the street, humming a hymn under his breath he jingled back to the temple to disturb the holy silence with those bells of his. That wasn't right... but knowing Tylor it didn't seem all that bad. Taking a deep breath Genis gripped the letter, not having the guts to open it himself and read it, and praying that he passed he went to the door and moved to push it open.

It wasn't that kind of door though, you had to pull it open, and flushing at his mistake as he realized it Genis gave it a tug and slipped inside. He was surprised, no flabbergasted when Lloyd came in with him, and Raine, and Colette... and even Kratos.

"You really don't have to come I mean..." Genis was blushing, feeling flustered and a bit lost. Everyone else here that he could see going up and down the stairs was older then him and he was feeling rather small and insignificant right then.

"Oh come on, you think we're gunna let you take that entrance exam all by-"

"What's that I hear? Entrance exam, I say the candy store is down the street little boy, you best go there."

"Excuse me?" Lloyd growled, looking up at two students that were his age and were giving Genis a nasty look.

"Lloyd, don't get into a fight, please, I'll deal with this!" Genis gripped his friend's arm, hoping, praying...

"Alright." Lloyd backed off. "If that's what you want OK."

"Thanks."

"Wow, the education standards must have dropped if this is how common rabble talks."

"Lay off!" Genis growled, glaring up at them. "Not everyone likes to flaunt the fact that they possess a large vocabulary all the time. If you use lengthy words to explain simple concepts you start to look like a pompous egomaniac after a span."

"I just did not understand that but go get 'em Genis!"

"Ever hear of the saying birds of a feather?"

"Yeah, wow that makes you and your friends a pretty cocky bunch then doesn't it?"

"Why you little!"

"Whoa there Buddy, let me deal with this." The group of students parted to reveal someone who looked to be fourteen and had buck teeth. "Name's Mighty, and if you pass my test I'll let you go see the Dean, how's that?"

"Alright." Gripping the letter Genis gathered his courage.

"In this school we specialize in subject, I'm an English major, Buddy's a Math, Frank's a History... so here's the deal I give you a test, they give you a test, and then you get to take the big test. You get a black board for the math, got that?"

"Nothing easier."

"Heh that's what they all say. Bud get the shrimp a board would you." Flashing his tooth lacking smile Mighty rubbed his hands together. "Blank is to blank... Three options."

"I know how that works."

"Good cuz I wasn't going to explain.

Wisdom is to sagacity as

water is to fire,

sand is to Gnome,

cloud is to Sylph."

"The second option."

"Number two... tell me you've read the 'Analysis of Spiritua Ethics'."

"When I was eight."

"Cute, OK then shrimp, explain quickly what the main ramification of the twenty second decree of the Goddess."

"There were two, the establishment of the Houses' of Salvation in wild areas and the founding of the cathedral of Voices in this city."

"Impressive... and Bud is here boards and all so we will just step right along now wont we?"

Taking the boards in his hands he waited as the student indicated flipped through a booklet and began to read an algebraic equation of the fifth order.

xxx xxx xxx

"You're good, I'll give you that pointy ears."

"It's Genis." The sorcerer growled.

"You get your name when you pass the main exam. The dean said he's making the questions so you get to study, in that room over there. We'll come for you when the time comes. Nice knowing you shrimplet." Patting Genis' head Mighty walked off, his chuckle trailing behind him like a ghost.

"Ah this is why I hate formal education settings." Kratos muttered under his breath. "I'd almost forgotten..."

"We all have to take the test?"

"Yes, all." Kratos gave Lloyd a look and Lloyd looked like he wanted to hide under the floor boards. Genis smiled at his friend.

"I know you'll at least get a D Lloyd, you wont fail after all I've been tutoring you too!"

"Don't worry Lloyd I know you'll do better then before, Kratos and Raine have been teaching you!"

"Yeah... I know..." Lloyd looked like he wanted to pass away rather then be on the receiving end of Kratos' wraith after the test. Genis knew what Lloyd was thinking. Lloyd could out run Raine, it was a proven fact, but Kratos was as fast as Lloyd, and in a strange town where he didn't know his way around Kratos would catch him when Lloyd made a bolt for it. "I'm well aware."

Poor Lloyd, Kratos was going to skin him alive after he failed. But Lloyd was risking Kratos' rage, Raine's rage, and Colette's disappointment because he wanted to give support to Genis. Knowing that made a warm spot in his chest flare up and set a sweet rush of confidence through him. He'd pass, he'd do better then Mighty and all his friends, better then Raine if he had... Well not better then his Sis but he'd do his best for Lloyd and for himself too.

xxx xxx xxx

"Professor, what's an ar-gu-ment-ov-?"

"Argumentative." Kratos snapped, putting a dot on the final line of his essay. "If you don't know skip it for now and go back to it... Wait... Does the line read "Compose an argumentative essay stating the value of currency in the shaping of society?"

"No."

"There's a comfort."

"It says "compose an argumentative essay explaining the pro's and con's of wildlife conservation."

"Gods... why..." Kratos groaned lowered his head into his hands.

"Welcome to my world Mr. Aurion." Raine sighed. "When they give out the test why don't you ask them to let you skip the essay questions Lloyd?"

"Alright."

"What does argumentative sound like..." Kratos said from behind his screen of hands.

"Argument?" Lloyd offered, wondering what the bid deal was. No one else was surprised or even seemed to care that he didn't know. "Why?"

"Which means?"

"Compose a fight essay explaining the pro's and con's of... That doesn't make sense, anyway it's not like I even know what the rest of this stuff means."

"Maybe you should skip the intermediate language section Lloyd..." Genis offered weakly.

"This is what happens when you sleep in class all the time Lloyd." Riane scolded, the lecture was half hearted however and it was almost as old as Lloyd was.

"What does it mean?" He pointed at the question and Raine gave up with a sigh.

"You have to explain why keeping wild area's is good or bad."

"Oh why don't they just say that?"

"Well you have to write a minimum of five paragraphs explaining that's what argumentative essays are made of."

"Para-graph?"

"Good Martel..." Raine looked at Lloyd with a mix of wonder and horror, horror winning out. "Tell me you've learned something from all those years of my teaching."

"Well Art, PE... and..."

"Sleeping standing up." Raine finished for him. "Why didn't you ever go to tutoring?"

"Umm well... I was kind of busy after school."

"What, playing?" Kratos growled, Genis blinked at the genuine anger, he was taking Lloyd's lack of knowledge pretty hard. But then Genis was like that once too, trying to explain and teach until Lloyd and him agreed it was just a waste of time.

"No!" Lloyd sounded offended. "I had to help Dad at home, and it take two hours to get from school to home and the second I got back I had to chop wood for the forge and get water for cooling off whatever project Dad was working on with the forge, after that I'd take over at the bellows a few hours -unless Genis or Colette comes over then I'm excused from that-, water and weed our garden if I need too, then cook dinner, then work on some smaller projects like carving or writing out measurements for Dad or going over Dad's measurements for a piece, then we eat, talk, I go take a walk with Noishe for a bit, work on some of my projects that I give to my friends, clean up for bed, stargaze, and go to bed."

Raine's mouth sagged open, as did everyone else's.

"Wow Lloyd you really are busy when you get home!" Colette chirped. "But don't you get tired?"

"Colette, I think that's why he sleeps in class."

"Umm you're not going to hit me with an eraser for talking when I'm not supposed to are you professor?"

"Well no, and I apologize I didn't know you were so busy after class, but perhaps if you came in before class starts I could tutor you then."

"You mean after I pick up the room, make breakfast and lunch, do the laundry..." The list of what he did in the morning was almost as long as the afternoon list.

"Just out of morbid curiosity what does your father do for a living, sleep all day?"

"Shut it Kratos!"

"Be logical Lloyd." The mercenary scolded, taking no insult with Lloyd's angry words. "With all you are doing..."

"He makes all, or most, of the projects we sell, plus he hunts, and he..." And yet another long list was offered.

"But as chief provider for the family he should take the bulk of the tasks..."

"We split it fifty fifty, you have a problem with that?"

"Several."

"Well it's not like we have an easy job like you all you have to do is-"

"Easy? You are grossly mistaken in that presumption young man-"

"Lloyd, Kratos, please don't fight!"

"Well I guess the study session is over," Raine smiled at their friends as Colette and Lloyd tried to out argue the mercenary, tried to persuade him that being a body guard was easier then being a craftsman, and were losing badly. "Are you ready Genis?"

"Yeah," Genis smiled even though his friends were fighting all around him. "Weird as it is I'm not all that nervous anymore."

"You have nothing to be nervous about; I know you'll do fine."

"Are you nervous Raine?"

"Just a little."

He hugged her, and she smiled, gave him a good luck pat on the head. There old joke was that Raine would run her fingers through his hair to pick up on some of his luck and some of her luck would brush up on him so they'd both have equal good luck. "You're the best and luckest thing to ever come into my life baby brother." Was what she had always told him since he was little. As she always said it without words when she ruffled his silver locks. Seeing that familiar grin on his face Raine made a face of her own.

"He's going to stomp you." Raine said, using her favorite Lloyd-ism.

"You know Kratos," Genis said hopping to Lloyd's defense, the mercenary had Lloyd on his knees, dazed and sword to the throat, at least argumentatively speaking. "On the scale of bulk physical labor you could say that craftsmanship is more taxing then mercenary work."

Kratos' excellent arguing skills began to fade as he had to argue and counter argue against three people simultaneously, his defense totally fell apart when Raine entered the fray, and the 'invincible' mercenary at that point met his match.

xxx xxx xxx

"Four hundred!" Genis squealed. "I tied with Raine!"

"You beat all of us!" Mighty gasped.

"Actually..." The professor flushed. "He beat me, I only got three hundred and ninety nine... I guess I need to take a math course with the younglings again." The old man smiled. "Congratulations Mr. Sage we'll hold your name on file and you can come back anytime to take classes."

"Thanks!"

"And if you could persuade your sister to come and teach we'll cut tuition fees in half."

"Raine..."

"We'll talk about it later Genis."

On the other side of the room a less cheerful ending was playing out.

"Twenty five..." Lloyd stared at his paper; the only questions he'd gotten right were the most minor sections on art, dwarven culture, and one history question that had to do with Kratos' merchant treaty.

"Out of four hundred." Kratos' voice was flecked with ice. "Boy, you and I are going to have a long talk latter."

"How come you got three hundred and eighty... you can't be that good!"

"Really?" Kratos' voice was soft, lethal, and promised hours of studying. "Try me."

"I can run really fast." Lloyd squeaked, shrinking back in his chair. "You have to catch me before you can make me study!"

"What did you just say?" Kratos hissed, grabbing the front of Lloyd's tunic.

"Nothing!" The young swordsman whimpered.

"Good."

xxx xxx xxx

"Four hundred!" Genis chirped. "I got four hundred!"

Genis had held up a composed and dignified air in the college but less then ten steps out of it had given into his childish side. He did a cartwheel, much to everyone's shock, right in the center of the street.

"How old is he?" Kratos muttered to Lloyd, the Iselian swordsman was a little aloof after Kratos had all but threatened to do bodily harm to him if he didn't do better next time they took a test here. Oh and there would be a next time, the mercenary had promised, he planned to drag Lloyd here after the journey just to make him take it again.

"Twelve."

"Ah that explains it, and how long is 'this' going to last?"

Lloyd grinned at Kratos.

"Oh maybe a week."

"What?"

"Seven days, a week."

"I know what a week is!"

"Why'd you ask then?"

"Don't court death so early in your life Lloyd."

"Yeah, no problem old man." Patting a very offended Kratos on the head he left the mercenary to catch up with Raine and Colette. There was no point in trying to keep up with Genis, he dashed ahead of them letting everyone know he got a perfect score on the entrance exam.

xxx xxx xxx

"Marche said the book of Regeneration was with the royal family, that Governor General Dorr has it now." Colette told them as they ate lunch at a small cafe. Kratos was being generous and had offered the meal as a gift of congratulations to Genis for his achievement. So they sipped on coffee, they had refused to give Genis coffee while he was hyper so he had tea, and nibbled on sandwiches while the people of the city flowed around the small tables that lay under the shade of a roof.

"Then the next course of logic would be to see this Governor General..." Kratos made a face as he bit into his sandwich, the first bite he'd had all day as far as Lloyd could tell. Opening the bread slices Lloyd glimpsed a bit of red, a tomato, and watched as Kratos picked it out. He stared at his meal for a bit then tossed it on the plate. "Anyone want this?"

"I'll trade," Lloyd offered, not wanting to see the man go hungry. "You mind lemon slices?"

"Not at all."

Both men ripped off the parts of the sandwiches they had last bit into and swapped plates. Lloyd got the tomato laced meal, which he picked out with more care then the mercenary had shown. It was probably the last time Kratos was ever going to let Colette order for him ever again. Having shrugged off her query of what he wanted for lunch Colette had grown indecisive. Not knowing what the mercenary liked Colette picked the sandwich that had everything in it, and there was a lot of nasty looking green things that he had to throw away because of that. Eggplant? Yuck! That joined the tomato with the green stringy things on the plate.

"What'd you get Colette?"

"Apple, jelly, and applesauce!"

"As a sandwich?" Lloyd managed to keep the 'eww' he was thinking out of his tone.

"Of course! It's really good!"

For something that was really good though she'd only had half a sandwich, if it was good she'd had eaten the whole thing. Guess even Colette couldn't eat that much sweet stuff in one serving.

"What kind of apple sauce is that?" Kratos asked, setting aside his half eaten half of Lloyd's sandwich.

"Mmm Cinnamon's mixed in so I think it's apple cinnamon sauce."

Kratos rose an eyebrow to convey his shock.

Lloyd chuckled at the older man's expression, Kratos'd get used to Colette's weird foods.

"So after we see Dorr then what?"

"The book should tell us our next step." Kratos thoughtfully picked up Colette and Genis' plates and whipped them off over the trash with a napkin. Lloyd frowned; two of those plates had a lot of food left on them. Catching his look the mercenary asked Lloyd what the matter was.

"Max's breakfast of half cooked fish has been making my stomach a bit touchy." The mercenary replied, he smiled slightly at Lloyd, not with his lips but somehow with his eyes.

"If you're feeling sick Mr. Aurion then you should have let me know." Raine snapped, after all him not telling her was a bit of a insult since she was supposed to be there doctor.

"It will pass on its own." The mercenary said coolly, turning down Raine's offer before she could voice it, his hostility firmly back in place in the blink of an eye.

"You are being stubborn, and a typical male in turning down my help, I could make it easier." Raine pointed out, spurred more on the need to be logical then in vain hope that Kratos would change his mind.

"I would rather let nature run her course. Magic has its place, nature has her place."

"And a certain mercenary has his place in annoying Raine." Lloyd whispered to a calmer Genis later on as they traveled through the city yet again on another search, this time for a building instead of a potion.

Genis chuckled, said something rather nasty about Kratos and Lloyd bit on his lip to keep from laughing.

"What was that?" Kratos murmured, playing the groups shadow once again. "I think I hear two children asking for a Raine'ing."

No way in this noisy street he couldn't have heard them...

"I can lip read, it's a hard skill to pick up but I have acquired it."

Wincing at the steel in Kratos' voice Lloyd understood that this was the one and only warning they were going to get.

xxx xxx xxx

"The Chosen?" Murmured the man in fine silk robes of his office, a golden chain hung about his neck and he looked at them with weary blue eyes. Stroking a grey streaked dirty blonde beard the man nodded to someone behind them. "Come closer so I may see the truth of this for myself."

In less then a moment guards grabbed his wrist, kicked his legs out from under him. Grunting in pain Lloyd lashed out, kicked blindly behind him, and someone stomped on his legs. Cursing Lloyd thrashed, and could not free himself from those steel sheathed hands. He could hear Genis cry out in pain, could hear Raine protesting. There was a grunt, a hissed curse, and the sound of steel rasping out of its sheath.

"Drop the blade merc." A young man snapped, he sat to Dorr's right hand side, a young girl of ten or so to his left gasped. "Draw blade on the captives."

Lloyd froze in his captor's grip, the blade gently guided him so that he had to look at the ceiling, to stare at the angels that gloomily stared back. He could not see anything but black winged men and woman garbed in smoke hued robes over a decimated city. Not recognizing the scene it was to represent Lloyd found that view rather fitting for his current situation, there gloom fell onto him and drained away his stubborn desperation to live. He heard a chair scrape against tile floor, heard the older man tell the younger to take Killia out of the room.

"Drop the blade or the swordsman dies first, then the woman, then the child." Came that harsh age roughed voice. "I do not wish to kill innocents put under your scam but I shall to prevent you from hurting my men."

There was a muffled thump, Kratos dropping his sword Lloyd guessed.

"Neil take Killia to our home, sweetling I'll explain this all later."

"Daddy!"

"Everything's fine dear heart, go along with Neil."

"Wait, please don't hurt anyone, I can prove I'm the Chosen, please!"

"You're a very gifted actor Ms. I'd almost believe you... but I try to be fair, if the mercenary allows my men to restrain him I shall give you your chance."

"Like you gave us the chance to even open our mouths when we..." Lloyd gasped in pain as a hand nearly ripped a fistful of hair from his head. "Son of a..." He croaked out a few oaths as his captor kicked him.

"Lloyd! Stop hurting him, stop hurting my friends!"

Lloyd could hear the tears on Colette's voice, it made him want to fight harder, but knowing his pain was making her cry he did something that went against everything he wanted to do. He went still, relaxed, and his captor stopped kicking him. Kratos was free, he could protect Colette, gritting his teeth against the pain to keep from crying himself Lloyd stared at the ceiling, aware of the cold steel that pressed against his neck.

"You have your chance, starting now."

There was a cold wrench in his gut. He listened to Colette's muttered prayers and could feel an unnatural wind ruffle his clothes. It carried the scent of spring flowers, or rain on fields of young grass, and was as bitter and harsh as winter. There was a flash of light, and the angels that he was forced to look at were washed away in wave of pink light.

"Look Daddy, look at her pretty wings!"

The hands suddenly let go and pulled him to his feet. After being tromped on so many times his legs didn't want to work, so his guard wound up half holding him up. He looked and gapped, Kratos had knocked one of the guards unconscious, he was sporting a small slash that ran across his chest but it did not bleed. Lloyd caught a glimpse of gold around the man's neck when he knelt by a dazed Genis. Wincing at the sight of that bruise and lump on Genis' head Lloyd knew that his friend's head -if nothing else- was killing him. Raine came to fetch her brother, holding the small elf in her hands she muttered a few words and a soft golden light gave Genis the appearance of a halo. Not liking that thought, not liking the sight of Colette's wings, Lloyd shrugged off his guards attempts to be kind and leaned against a tapestry covered wall. Panting out soft curses as his left leg decided it hated him more then his right Lloyd shifted his weight to his right leg and prayed the left wasn't broken.

"Are you well?" A cool hand slid over his shoulders, tried to coax him from the wall.

Shaking his head, half listening to the apologetic babble from Dorr and Neil showered on Colette and little Killia's attempts to play with Colette's wings, half aware that he was in the room and not drifting on winds of pain, Lloyd shrugged off Kratos' attempts to pull him away from the wall.

"Don't." He croaked, eyes seeing and not seeing. "Can't stand..."

"You're legs probably numbed from the abuse it took." A cold hand slid across the back of his hurt leg. Lloyd felt a wrench inside, a twisting shock, and then the pain died down a little.

"Did you just heal me?" He managed both gratitude and shock at the same time.

Kratos shrugged, a blush coloring his pale face with a hint of red. "I dabble; it comes when it comes, most of the time not at all."

"Human's can't... Well I guess some can..." Lloyd admitted, feeling rather dumb and weird like someone had scrambled his brains. "I feel kind of funny..."

"Another sign of my inaptitude in this. My healing leaves people disoriented for a bit, I tend to over do the pain block."

"Now I really can't walk..." Lloyd blurted, what little tact he had was now gone because of the feeling in his head. "I feel like I'm here and not here..."

"I'll have Raine look you over later, can you hold for now?"

"I think... I need to go outside." Yeah out sounded good... Away from the cold light, and the people yammering, and the guards, and everything. Even with his weird feeling in his head his anger for getting hurt was still there. He nodded to nothing in particular and let Kratos escort him out. From far away he heard someone ask what he was doing; Kratos said something and no one cared anymore. Feeling a real wind, not the cold un-wind on his face Lloyd felt his brain wake up just a little. Not caring he was the steps of the govenor general's office he sat and looked at the building. It looked a lot like the Martel temple Tylor served in, he thought fuzzily, didn't they know how to make non-church buildings, even the school had looked like a church. Lloyd sat on the steps, stared numbly at nothing. He was aware of Kratos' presence, the man didn't try to make him talk, and didn't comment on anything in particular, merely let his brain drift. The numb would have been scary had he cared, he would care latter, till then though he drifted and felt like a good breeze would unravel him to nothing. Slowly, very slowly he felt himself wake up by degrees, he began to note things and care about them, and the main thing he noted and cared for was that it was getting late, at least that's what the sun's position told him.

"So," Speaking wasn't so hard anymore, he was definitely kicking off this over done healing thing. "You know where there's an inn?"

"There's a street of them on the outer edge of town." Kratos said coolly. "There are of course less then respectable inns scattered about the city but the more prestigious inns are in on that street."

"You've been everywhere huh?" Lloyd was starting to feel sleepy and the idea of an inn sounded nice.

"I try." Kratos' lips curled into a small smile. "It keeps me employed; after all, with my job there is no surplus of offers in one area."

"You got a favorite place?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact I do."

"And I'll have to tie you to Noishe and have him run around in circles for an hour before you tell me right?"

"Torture? That seems out of character Lloyd. I wager Noishe would collapse from exhaustion if he had to carry me for an hour." Lloyd blinked at the joke and chuckled.

Kratos stared at the sky, at the gulls that wheeled like bits of rouge cloud, fading in and out of the white fluff filled skies, disappearing in the whole and darting out to dive at the sea or a passing boat. The mercenary caressed the hilt of his sword, wondered at something Lloyd probably couldn't even follow. It was amazing a little while ago he was fighting off all those guards for Colette, that before that he'd been playing cards, and took a huge test, and did all these things without getting tired or nothing. It was like the second they'd stepped out of Iselia on the day of the Oracle thing after thing popped up and he seemed to have his hands in it all… but then they all did. Maybe it was something about leaving home that did that, that made you do that.

"Would you mind answering a question?"

Lloyd shrugged, and Kratos took that as a sign to ask his second question.

"Do you have a favorite place?"

"I haven't seen everywhere so I can't say for sure if it's my all time fav place, but yeah, doesn't everyone?"

"Everyone is a very broad term Lloyd." Kratos scolded. "In my experience 'nothing' has ever applied to everyone. Since it seems as if Dorr is dragging things out in the room tell me of it."

When Lloyd described something, though the words were always simple there was a 'vein of passion to the words that opened a world' as Raine once described it. From time to time you could see as he saw, the boundary of different minds just faded away. Now was one of those times it seemed, he could almost smell the leaves in their piles at the base of trees. The trees were booted in autumn hued shoes, the apple tree that was lost in the mess 'wild' trees hung with orbs of rich crimson dangling from its branches. With the sweet taste of apple on the tongue and the calls of bird about there was a soft murmur of water caressing stone. A small stream that would tie into the stream that cut into the one which made it's way by Dirk's house was too shallow to house fish but served as a place where man child hood boats had crossed those low waves. In a dark place, hidden by leaves and branch was a grotto, between a mess of root and shadow a secret home where one could hide from the world.

"If you ever visit me and Dad I'll show you where it is, it's hard to find, really hard, because not even animals like to go there. You walk no path, and a tumble and fall later you're there." Lloyd said in conclusion, his eyes had lost a great deal of there glazing and he seemed almost normal again. "Your turn."

"My turn?"

"You need to play some games or something if the words 'your turn' confuse you, I'd help."

"Me, play a game?" Kratos snorted. "Honestly could you see me doing such a thing."

Thinking back on Kratos face when one of the children had ran to him during the tiger hunt Lloyd nodded.

"Hurmph, you're daft."

"Dad dropped me a few times, Noishe tackled me more then a few, and Raine smacks me on a regular basis, I've gotta be a little daft from all the blunt… What's Genis' word, tamu, trome, trauma?" Kratos confirmed Lloyd's lucky guess and Lloyd pressed on. "Trauma, that's it, to my head." Lloyd countered, flashing the mercenary a toothy grin.

"And you're proud of this why?"

"I dunno."

"Would you like to see it?" Kratos decided a change of subject was in order, he'd figure out how to better teach Lloyd later.

"Wha- Oh, sure, of course!"

"Later, not now." Kratos said, grabbling Lloyd's arm before he got up. "Let's get the others to the inn and I'll take you there before nightfall."

"Sounds good to me, whatdya think's taking them so long?"

There was a shriek of rage, a crash, and a howled string of profanities.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU GAVE IT TO THE CHOSEN? WE'RE THE REAL CHOSEN GROUP!"

"Was… that Ms. Sage just now?" Kratos said, his voice while as cool as always was had a note of… fear in it.

"Yeah, she's never sounded that mad since she caught me teaching Genis how to swim, or last month even when me and Colette were kiss… erm nothing! Let's just stay out here, I like it outside. It's nice, quiet, and 'safe'."

Kratos was already getting up. "Come on, if it sounds as bad as I think it is then we'll be needed inside to save the governor general."

Remembering the guard who nearly broke his legs at Dorr's command Lloyd frowned.

"And why are we doing that again?"

"Appearances,"

"Alright I'm coming I'm coming."

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"You gave it to a group of people who just said they were the chosen, you humans are all the same! Do you even think or is that place for you're hair on- Ouch, Raine!"

"That was out of line, apologize!"

Kratos coughed, leaned against the door he had just closed while Lloyd went to the slightly more rational Colette to figure out what was going on. Of course it was obvious; someone posing at the Chosen had taken the book of Regeneration. It was only a matter of time before someone took advantage of the religious zeal that filled the world, saw past the glamer of prayers and angel feathers, and saw it as a tool to there own ends.

"Could you give us a description of the culprits Dorr?"

Frowning at being addressed with his common name Dorr glared at the mercenary.

"That proper form address is Governor-General Dorr Sir, I understand as a man from the other continent such a thing might be unknown to you but in PalmaCosta we like to be formal." Neil said not in a patronizing or insulting tone, but as a man seeking to merely correct.

"An emergency prevents niceties however, and this would qualify as a crisis." Kratos snapped, foot tapping a restless rhythm. "The more time we stay the harder it's going to be to capture these people and retrieve the book."

"What's so important about this book?" Lloyd asked, scratching at the back of his head.

"It tells us where all the seals are." Raine snapped. "Such a magnificent relic of ages past in the hands of mere thieves… we must find the book and preserve it from farther harm!"

"Ruin mode… no ruins… scary."

Raine hit Lloyd on the back of his head and Kratos winced in sympathy, if he had been so roughly handled since childhood it was a merical he still had any wit left. Perhaps Katos wouldn't be so harsh when he resumed giving lessons.

"We must find that book! Now!"

"It's not gunna magically appear because we want it to professor!" Lloyd took a step back as Raine's eyes narrowed. "Could someone just tell us what those guys looked like already?"

Neil offered a description, Dorr added a few things, and Killia stared at Colette's back which was missing those pink wings. She had a feather tucked behind her hair, a gifting from Colette Kratos figured, and lost in a wave of soft blonde hair the feather seemed to glitter like the palest of rubies. Interesting, while pink on her back they turned red when they fell. It was after a few moments of listening to the description that Kratos felt his anger return.

"Those bastards they make us get a potion even though they're thieves, no fair!" Lloyd howled, Dorr clapped his hand's over his little girl's ears and both politicians gave Lloyd a long look.

"Daddy did the loud man say any other bad words?"

"No dear, and he wont anymore." Dorr smiled down at his child, slid a hand though her hair and fondly kissed her. Looking up he turned again into the cold and demanding general who had seen far too many battles. "Whoever you are young man I do not appreciate you cursing in my daughter's presence."

"Alright, I'm leaving, sheesh."

"I'll go with him, maybe we can figure out where they went." Genis offered.

"Don't leave the plaza." Raine and Kratos said over their shoulders absently as the two walked out. Raine directing her comment at Genis and Kratos at Lloyd. Kratos mentally kicked himself for his lapse, and was surprised when Colette giggled at him. Both adults shared a look, not liking the playful happy glint in Colette's eyes, and almost as if on cue they took a step away from each other.

"So cute…" Colette giggled and when asked to explain she asked if she could go outside with Lloyd.

Worried and wondering Kratos listened to the full report Dorr gave him. Raine left, the mercenary remained a moment, wondering if he had heard something. He turned, stared at the guard, the lone guard standing watch over a blank wall.

"Good sir, certainly you have more important things to do then watch old Ferr at his job?"

What job, what man guards nothing? Biting down on those questions, alarmed that they had nearly broken to the surface, Kratos bowed to the men behind the horse shoe desk, and was greatly disturbed when Killia winked at him from her father's lap. Then nothing, she snuggled into her sire's lap and said she was sleepy, and Dorr admitted in a weary voice of his own that it had been a very long day. Neil gave him a meaningful look and jerked his head to the door.

Taking the hint Kratos turned on his heel and left, the last sight he had was a painful one. Of Dorr holding his child to his heart, smiling, the words of an old bed time tale falling from his lips.

"Once upon a time there existed a giant tree that was the source of all mana. A war, however…"

A war… Kratos firmly closed the doors of the building behind him, looked down at the children and teacher he was to protect.

The war never stopped, it changed, because in all wars we throw out children to a beast that's ever hungry, every thirsting for blood. We tell them stories and give them hope and armed with flawed weapons of optimism and prayers we send them to die. The beast might be different, the tales certainly are… But the blood seeped conscious and fields slowly filling with the dead that is all the same.

"Can you believe this Kratos! Man what a pack of filthy jerks!" Lloyd flared, wanting a more sympathetic and less on edge audience for his anger.

"Yes Lloyd… it is hard to believe." Kratos murmured absently, recalling Killia in Dorr's arms and seeing a time long long ago.

"Now what?"

Looking down at Lloyd Kratos sighed, pushed back memories that had no place for the time.

"You all will go to the inn… I will see what contacts I can dredge up and see where our query went."

"Sources?" Raine asked, an eyebrow rising. "Confidential I presume?"

"Strictly confidential, people who hunt for two legged prey do not like to make it a known fact."

"I'm lost?" Lloyd sighed.

"What are you talking about Mr. Kratos?"

Genis understood and shivered at the slight curl around Kratos' lips. It was a wolf's smile, a predator's smile. It belonged to a predator who found his pray a little more satisfying then the norm. He'd seen that look before they fought that thing at Ossa, that huge bone monster. Suddenly he wasn't going to put it off any longer, he closed his eyes and let go of the world for once second, letting a different Sight take him. Sandwiched between a writhing red mass and a familiar green gold, was a soft silver blue light. It was the color of winter, and the threads writhed and twisted, tangling itself into knots and straightening those tangles. They seemed soft, edged with fur… no not quite, but when he reached ever so slightly it was like grasping a handful of razors. Whimpering Genis dropped out of the weave, let the Sight slid away, and since no one was noticing him turned his hand over. Blood dripped from between his fingers, he quickly thrust it behind him. Only when Kratos left, giving Raine detailed directions to an inn he would meet them at, did he lift his gaze from the cobble stones. Had he seen, understood what Genis was trying to do or… was it just touch that triggered that horrible reflex. He mutely followed the others, let them lead, and while Colette and Lloyd went to there separate rooms he reached out with bloodied hand to tug Raine's sleeve.

"Genis!" She took his hand, was ready to start fussing over it and he pulled away.

"Raine… we need to talk, it's an emergency." Tears build in his eyes, fear and need warring in him.

"Alright," She draped a hand onto his shoulder and lead him to there room.

Xxx xxx xxx

"You did what?" Raine sputtered, giving her brother a long disappointed look. "There were at least a hundred people in that square…"

"I can focus it on someone and not have to look everywhere if I know what I want to See." Genis whispered as Raine worked the jell into his poor abused hand. "If I think of Lloyd even though there are a few walls between us I can See him. As long as there in a building with me or less then a mile away I can See them if I know they're there,. I have to Look for people if I don't know where there at and he was right there. Raine I want to leave, I want to go to another inn and just leave Kratos behind!"

"What did you see?" Raine whispered, holding him to her while he shook, already deciding that no matter what Genis said she would reconsider Kratos' presence amongst them. "Explain it to me was he fiery like the mayor and tried to burn you? Or like the snakes with Ivan?"

"No… He was… Cold. So cold, I went all cold Looking at him, like snow and ice but scary. It was silver streaked blue and there were gold threads hanging limp around it's side, a few, only a few seemed to drift off and connect with something or someone, I didn't follow them though." He sniffled sounding like the very young child he was and Raine decided she was going to hit Kratos a few times over this. To Hell with his threats, no one hurt her baby brother while she was around! "It was soft looking, so soft and I… Reached…"

"Have you ever done so before?" If so she wasn't aware, he'd never talked of reaching before.

"With you, when I'd get those… nightmares I'd touch you and the fear would just go away. It looked so soft Raine, so pretty like snow flakes and it cut me. He cut me. It's like if I touch you…" He gently tapped her shoulder. "But he just drew a sword… It's like touching someone like that and them sticking a knife in you… Not even Lloyd did that when I touched him, he was… having a nightmare when we were little and I Saw a little of it and that hurt but he didn't mean to and it didn't hurt me like this… When Lloyd realized I was in his head he threw me out so I wasn't trapped in the dream and this red light threw him back into the nightmare. He never thought anything of it; it was just part of his dream to him. But he wouldn't have thrown me out; Kratos was dragging me in and cutting me up and each cut I could see nightmares. A dead woman a monster with bloody hands and a dead little boy… And light, there was a cold light, I tried to run, to break it off… and I think he must of realized I was seeing things because he shoved me and I was able to break out of it. But even as he shoved the knives were pulling me in and I could see the weave sliding open."

"A word in a weave?" Raine whispered, stroking his hair and wondering how she could keep the mercenary at ease long enough when she walked up to him with her battle staff so she could get closed enough to grind off his male parts.

"I was going to see but that's when he shoved and I didn't want to see because it must have been awful."

"Could you reach for me? Just so the pain goes away and you can sleep? I want you to sleep on this and I promise I'll do something about that human. I won't let him touch you ever again…"

"Make him leave Raine, please make him leave! He scares me!"

"Shh it's alright, he wont hurt you ever again, I promise…" She stroked his hair and his eyes closed. She felt nothing, even though she was prepped to feel something there was nothing. But the fear faded and he quieted in her arms. With a sigh he fell asleep and she tucked him in kissing a pointed ear. Snatching up her staff she left the room, and spotting Colette going down the stairs to the loby she ordered the girl to her rooms.

"Stay there and lock the door, if I don't come to see you by morning I want you to go out the window and run back to the chapel and stay there."

Baffled yet not scared Colette did as she ordered, but then to Raine's knowledge Colette was as immune to fear as was Lloyd.

Lloyd… He was drawn to the mercenary, slowly being wheeled in by a gauntlet of knives to the man's center it seemed… Not anymore he wasn't. She spoted Lloyd and him in the loby, they looked as if ready to depart.

Like hell he was.

"Get away from my student!" Raine hissed, eyes mere slits. He last rational thought was 'so much for surprise'. Just the sight of him made her calm fly apart. "Lloyd go to my room and lock the door."

"Professor what's-"

NOW Lloyd!"

"But!"

The staff was raised threateningly, it seemed to weigh little more then air. Paling at that awful threat coupled with those thoughtless angry eyes Lloyd backed up, and He took position in front of her pupil.

"Lloyd." She said in a voice that was chillingly like her calm lecture tone. "I want you to look in on Genis, Kratos hurt him this afternoon and I want someone who can protect him by his side."

"What? He couldn't have hurt Genis he was with me!"

"I guess it comes down to whose side you are on then doesn't it? Don't betray us Lloyd, not like everyone else. Just go to the room and lock the door."

"Betray? Professor… I wont betray anyone… Look I'm not gunna go anywhere, I don't want you guys to fight and if I leave that's exactly what's gunna happen. He was with me Professor, sitting outside with me while I was sick, and you were with him or Genis all the other times right? So how can he have hurt…"

"Tell that to the knife cut on my brother's hand Lloyd."

Dead quiet filled the empty lobby as Lloyd tried to understand.

"Kratos, do you know anything?"

"Nothing," the mercenary whispered, and there was a hiss of blade sliding out of sheath. "But that won't stop me from acting."

"Yes, it will." Lloyd growled drawing his swords. "I don't care who starts it I'll step in and finish it."

"Be serious Lloyd." Kratos snorted, "You're no match for me."

"Me and Raine might just be enough, and if it isn't we can call Noishe, Colette and Genis if necessary."

"And if she strikes me?" Kratos whispered. Something in those eyes seemed to be breaking at every one of Lloyd's words. The young swordsman winced under the gaze, but he meant every word.

"I hate to hit a girl but I will."

"Lloyd…"

"Professor, I'm talking, let me finish. Kratos hand me your sword and knives, then I'm going to go to Raine and get her staff. I'll lock it all up in my room and then we'll sit down somewhere with a really nice 'long' table and talk. So," Lloyd was visible shaking from being on the brunt of both adults anger. "It's not do you trust each other, but do you trust me?"

Silence was felled by a hiss. Offering two knives hilt first Kratos then knelt and picked out a knife from each boot, another knife came from somewhere under that silly cape and then came the sword. Loaded down with more steel then he cared to think about Lloyd went to his teacher. She hesitated, stroked the wood and looked at him as if she'd never seen him before.

"Professor, don't betray me unless you feel you have to, unless you can't see another way then to betray me. I'm not turning my back on you, but neither of you make sense and if it doesn't make sense then doesn't that mean something's wrong, right? Don't tell me I slept through class that day when you said that too?"

He managed a slight smile, and in response to words or smile he'd never know which because even she didn't know. She gently lay her staff upon the pile of steel. Breathing a sigh of relief that both adult heard Lloyd worked his way up the stairs and left Raine and Kratos try to glare each other to death. He dumped the mess of weapons on Kratos' bed and made a panicked search. Opening his packs he rooted around and fishing out his last apple gel slid it into his pocket, something told him one of them would be needing it in a little bit.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"He has what?" Lloyd blinked at Raine dumbly, feeling like all the smarts he'd used to get them to this small parks long bench were all spent. He was sitting between the two adults and served as window and pincushion for death glares, at least at first.

"Sight… For the lack of better words 'it's an elf thing' some of us can see… He never explained it to me or maybe he couldn't explain to me what it was… and these things he sees tell a little about a person."

Kratos' brows knit together into a fierce scowl but before he could say something stupid Lloyd firmly stepped on his toe.

"Like what I'm thinking?"

"No, what you are… you're overall personality, mannerisms, and demeanor. At least that's how it sounds when he explained it."

"OK, so what do I look like?"

"I can't do it, only he can."

"And he's never looked at me, ever?"

"Once when you first met, and a handful of times after. He uses it to see if a person is dangerous or not, or to see if they're sick." Seeing his question she smiled. "He described you as red motion, firey but not burning, restless, with a few streaks of blue and gold in the mix. And I don't know what the colors mean; they seem to change meanings every time I ask. When he looked at Kratos with his Sight something he Saw cut him and he began to bleed, I had to use a jell and my mana to heal him."

And in saying that she was telling them just how deep that cut was, normally Raine could just seal a cut with a muttered word, it must have gone down to the bone.

"Kratos..." Lloyd didn't know where to go with this, didn't really have a question, but it seemed right that the man talk.

"He should not have done so without my permission Ms. Sage, I have violent enough physical reflexes it's a miracle that my 'thread' ones aren't as vicious."

"Tell me about it…" Lloyd grimaced, remembering Triet, he absently rubbed his throat and winced when he saw Kratos' guilty look. "Alright," He said more to keep Raine from questioning him then to honestly say what he though what a good idea would be. "How 'bout he looks at all of us? Reaches for all of us? And who ever hurts him has to leave."

"What!" Kratos growled, eyes narrowing to slits, and though he looked angry Lloyd could swear pain danced in his eyes.

"You'll know what's gunna happen, or what he's gunna do, so if you can't control it knowing that… It's like having someone who can't pull a thrust spar against you, it's that dangerous, and I won't let anyone who could hurt Genis stay, period."

"Your… logic is infallible it seems. I agree." Kratos said quietly. "On one condition, I want to know what he sees as he sees it. The information might be useful."

"It's not like you could use it." Raine growled, and Lloyd shifted uncomfortably since he was again being a living wall between the two angry adults.

"You never know." Kratos replied. "I might be able to."

"I swear he so much as develops one knick and I'll…"

"And he leaves." Lloyd finished for Raine. Knowing just how protective and violent Raine could get when Genis was concerned. He'd been on the brunt of her rages when he'd put them both in danger time and time again.

Xxx xxx xxx

"Weird…" Lloyd commented as Genis, holding his hand, eyes squinted up real tight, described what sounded like writhing spaghetti but what looked like liquid fire. "I can actually see it when I close my eyes."

"What!" Genis let go and the images went away. "You can't do that!"

"Can too, been doing it so there… but what were those weird gold things going off every which way?"

"But… only… I need to sit." Genis slumped on the floor before anyone could get him a chair. Colette had gone first and Lloyd had been a little wierded out by all the pink and fuzzy things in Colette, but after a while figured he shouldn't have been too surprised.

"What's wrong?" Lloyd blinked, he'd kind of liked seeing inside, and wondered if he could do something with it in his carving.

"Only magi can… but you're not a wizard, and I know you're not a half elf."

"Maybe I'm a fourth or eighth, or something." Lloyd shrugged, rubbing his exsphere. "All we know for sure was Mom looked human, at least that's what Dad said. My human Dad could've been a half elf or something for all we know. And don't I use magic when I do that silver thingie with my sword?"

"Demon fang," Kratos said coolly, his eyes thoughtful. "But a tech is not the same as a spell."

"Demon what a what?"

"Demon fang," Kratos rolled his eyes, "my name for it anyway."

"Demon fang, I like it… but why'd you call it that?"

"Because when I was young and arrogant I thought flashy names were wonderful things so I named all my techs, after years of calling them that I can't seem to break the habit."

"So that thing you did to the skeleton?"

"Double demon fang, in my youth I imagined myself to be something of a creative genius." Kratos seemed to smile with his eyes, and seemed somehow pleased with the description Genis had tagged to Lloyd.

"Huh," Lloyd looked down at Genis. "So why can't I see this thing?"

"Elves, half elves, and anyone with even a hint of elvish blood take mana from the world around them. An elf takes up a tiny bit, a half elf a great deal, and a human reflects mana, like light reflects off a mirror. Human's can't use mana because they can'

t take it in, it's almost like you're allergic to it. A tech like Demon Fang doesn't use mana it takes physical energy and your will, you gather all the strength in the swing and throw it across the ground. But if you don't move, don't swing you can't throw the energy, someone with elf blood can throw the energy without moving. It's rather simplified version of the full explanation but…"

"'Simplified?' " Lloyd snorted. "My head's already hurting, I don't wanna hear complex!"

"You could just be enhancing my magic, like how when throwing concentrated light on a mirror it makes a bright flash and you're Seeing by the flash…"

"But if I'm allergic then it'd be like Noishe eating peppers, I'd get all sneezey and runny eyed right?"

Genis frowned, thought it over and only said.

"Maybe you're part elf after all."

"That would be a horrible circumstance." Raine said, looking at Lloyd with a pity he didn't get.

"How so?" Genis seemed almost happy to hear Lloyd was part elf.

"Lloyd's mother was in a ranch… if he was conceived within then there is only one way Lloyd could have come into being…"

"Damn it…" Lloyd hissed as if in pain, Raine started to go to him but backed off seeing it was only a pain in his heart. Mind reeling from that possibility, that horrible possibility he buried it in vehamince. "No, I won't believe that! Mom was waiting for Dad, she said he'd come to take me home!"

"He never came Lloyd, and if your mother was hurt…" The professor said in a soft gentle voice, reaching out to stroke his hair.

"I wont believe that, ever!" He growled, shooting to his feet, shrugging of Raine's touch and going for the door. The door opened and slammed closed.

"Let it go Ms. Sage… I think this exercise is over for now, you can just do me tomorrow Mr. Sage, you appear weary anyway." Kratos stood. "I'll see to sleeping somewhere else tonight until trust is… restored. Rest well Chosen."

"Good night Kratos." Colette waved and he did not respond, only went to Lloyd's room to fetch his sword.

"Good night Genis, Professor." Colette got up and gently kissed her friend on his head. "It's not your fault, you didn't hurt him OK?"

"Okay…" Genis could not meet Colette's eyes.

"I didn't mean it like that… I thought if he was half elf he'd be more like us…" Genis whispered when he was alone with his sister.

"I know," Raine scooped Genis in her arms, held him close. "But even though that's what you want it's not what Lloyd is. We don't know who he is, he doesn't know, and all I know is that not knowing hurts."

"We didn't, it wasn't like that with us was it?"

"No, Mother loved Father, but Father died right after you were born, it was never like that at all."

"What happened Raine, why aren't we with Mother anymore?"

"When you're older I promise, I promise to tell you everything I remember, but not now. Go to bed… You were very brave today, and I promise even if he stays I won't let him be with you alone. You'll always have me or Lloyd or Colette by you."

"Lloyd likes him, so does Colette…"

"Colette would make friends with a skunk and not care if it sprayed her." Raine pointed out, never knowing that Phardia and Frank had that situation happen to them when Colette was eight and they had made there home to a skunk and it's family because they could not convince Colette "Mr. Stripes" was not a doggie. "And Lloyd… We need to talk about Lloyd and Kratos for a little. You see, Kratos lost his family, he told me in Izoold he lost his family, and he thinks Lloyd…"

"Is his son," Genis finished. "One of the things I saw was a little boy who was dead… I thought… it was me for a little bit… But he had brown hair, the little boy had brown hair and there was so much blood…"

"It's not real, not for you or me. It happened to 'him' and it wont happen to us, I won't let it." She held her brother and he curled up in her lap like so many times before. "All we have is us Genis, we have friends yes, but in the end its always is me and you. Don't forget that, I'll always protect you, I'll always love you, when everything goes away and time passes them all by as it has to I'll be here."

"Promise?" Genis whispered.

"Cross my heart..."

"Why can't it be more then us…" Genis whispered, staring at the darkening room and remembering a warm smile and the soft touch of a hand ruffling his wild locks. "Why can't we open up to them, tell at least Lloyd…"

"We can't Genis, I know it hurts sometimes to be alone like we are, but we're different from them, they can never know how different or they'll turn on us."

But one human did know, she had died yes, like all humans did in the end. She had known and not cared, and smiled at him, told him how to make the chocolate chip cookies Colette and Lloyd loved. She had promised, if she was saved, to make him a batch, just for him. Holding onto his sister he wept silent still crystal tears into the shadows, and ached for only having one person when he wanted so many more. His want poisoned with guilt, the guilt of not loving his sister enough, he closed his eyes and slid into slumber.

Xxx xxx xxx xx

"It can't be true, can it?" He whispered, going over everything Dad had ever told him about his Mom and wondering what he hadn't been told. Tylor had opened that horrible possibility that Dad knew more then he was telling, all by saying that Lloyd used to run away. Tylor never meant to hurt, neither did Genis, but it still hurt. He grabbed a pillow and threw it against the wall, making the wall thump and someone one the other side kicked back to show how angry they were. Angry they didn't know the meaning of the word angry, he'd show them! But no one came, and he didn't feel like getting up to yell at someone he didn't know. Another pillow smashed against the roof and he was out of ammunition rolling around with a restless energy and frustration that had no outlet he tangled in the blanket feeling absolutely worthless.

Kratos, on leaving, had given him a butt load of homework. Probably just to keep him from thinking. Phht, fat chance of that happening, Lloyd couldn't get immersed in books like Genis and Raine, so the plan failed.

"How's that make you feel Kratos? Your big idea failed!" He screamed, his words were met with a few thumps on all sides now, sheesh he was even annoying the help in the hallway.

He dragged himself to Kratos' bed and since he wasn't there threw those pillows into the gathering gloom. Whoever it was on the other side of the wall yelled a profanity, something about him eating his male hood would be an improvement. Growling Lloyd threw the blanket, but it only flew open and drifted to the floor. No satisfying thump there, he ripped at the mattress with restless fingers and worked off the covering blankets. He came to himself as if someone had doused him with cold water. He was literally ripping this room apart in frustration, in anger; it was a slow destruction, but destruction all the same. He had to get out before he ripped the pillows apart and started tearing up the feathers inside. He stood, took his swords as an afterthought, and locked the room behind him. He couldn't come back tonight; being alone was just too much, he kicked the key under Raine's door and decided that if he came back before morning he'd hang with Noishe.

Now that he was decided to head out where too? He stared at the very active taverns and houses around him. Blinked at the candle and tourch light that flooded the streets and played heck with the shadows. The city and night made the alleys seem like sinister gapping wounds and the open paths to be paved in gold stone. He was tempted by the sounds of laughter and music that crept from the taverns to go in… but Izoold had forever turned those places into forbidden zones. The old fear and horror he'd seen in his first was going to be his last. He'd never set foot in a tavern if he could help it.

That option closed, not liking the look of some of the smoke wreathed buildings that had hints of laughter, and not fool enough to linger in the shadowy places he wondered why he'd come out here for. He could just go to Noishe, but the thought of lying down with Noishe, trying to sleep made the restlessness come back. Well there was one place he knew his way too, he could go to the chapel, service was over already maybe they'd let him see Tylor. Liking that option, for it gave him someone to talk to who could talk back, Lloyd gripped the hilt of his blades and walked the golden road streaked with darkness.


	12. PalmaCosta prt3

_Reviewer Responses:_

_Melody of Shadow: It probably was too much for a "Teen" game... but it's something I wondered about until I learned the truth about his parentage. I was lucky I got TOS during a early bird sale or something like that for 25 bucks. Had to get up at three, fight a crowd of confused parents who were desperatly trying to get there kids presents for the upcomming holiday, and I never regretted getting TOS at all -though when I saw the opening me and my parent moaned Secret of Mana re-make- and I'm worse then a fan, look at all the writing I'm doing for a VG! Yes, Zelos will be a surprise to look forward to. Who'd a thought a last minute idea -AKA the threads- would become such a reader's point of interest! Yeah I'm going to keep it to Teen, profanity, violence, aren't enough to nudge it up, though I may put reader warnings up for the Kvar and later chapters. More plot twists on the way, hopefully way I'm going you'll be so speachless you'll be mute for a week._

_GameCubeGirl1: Don't worry she'll mellow out again, the last segment will give the "why" to a lot of the characters reactions to Kratos._

_Eevetta: In my mind they 'all' are complex characters, hence the fun and chaos of juggling all those personalities at once. As more characters get added I imagine dialouge, interaction, and chapters will lengthen in response. Thanks for not abandoning oyur fics, I understand a lack of updates completly, look at me I'm almost as bad myself, I'm leaving five stories on hold till class ends then I'm going to try to rush transfer them before class starts._

_FallenStarAngel: Whoa you like long reviews huh, that's cool but I can't answer everything right now, I'll e-mail you a full response to everything when I get the chance, but please I'm trying to make this spoiler free as I can so please put spoiler warnings up if you mention something that happens later on in the game, thanks! _

_To my readers,_

_Oh joy, the professor has finally gave us the guildlines for the final, a last quiz, and an essay, when I'm done with this load I'll have a week to crunch out as much writing as I can then it's back to class full time. When class kicks up full time expect extended spans of not updating, I'll do what I can but I'm taking a language this semester and ironic as is sounds I'm so bad with language that I'll probably be going to tutoring a ton and not writing. Sorry guys you know how it is._

_Kasan Soulblade _

PalmaCosta part 3

Genis rolled out oh bed, left the protective embrace of his sister's pale arms and forsook the nest of blanket and pillows he had been curled up on. The cold night air that filled the room, laden with salt and the faint scent of burnt out fire filled him, it had seemed so distant, in his sister's arms listening to her soft heartbeat and breath everything physical had seemed to fad away. But in his restless mind, in a mind that never stopped prying, his one gift now turned upon him. He was a victim of his own thoughts, his own guilt, and no amount of staying with Raine was fixing it. At last unable to take it anymore Genis had to get out. Which is exactly what he did. He picked his way against the ghost hued wooden planks that served at a floor, it was a little chilly, but luckily his socks took away the brunt of the cold. Walking on the tip of his toes the wizard wished he knew some way to make Raine's sleep deeper. As it was at the moment he wasn't that good, his only skill was really in blowing things up -Lloyd's words for it not his- and he didn't want to risk hurting Raine by trying a sleep spell on her. So as quiet as a mouse he padded around the room and fount his first boot where it was supposed to be, his other boot was on top of a dresser. Smiling at the weird place he put his stuff, the small pointed eared boy fought with his shoes. Comfortable that he had them laced up right he crept to the door, and on the thresh hold turned.

"Mmm Genis... don't squirm off the blanket..." Raine muttered, gently pulling a pillow to her side and tucking it in. She did all of that without waking up. Tears made his eyes sting, he gulped, feeling in that illogical emotional part of him that he was betraying her with this. But she wouldn't know, he wouldn't tell her so she wouldn't get hurt by what he had to do.

"G'Night Raine." He whispered softly, she said nothing, not waking up, and he closed the door behind him blinking and telling himself it was not time to cry.

xxx xxx xxx

"_Lunan Askan selusavess ar_.." Tylor rang a bell. Not one of the crystal bells that were in the chapel that were used for a ceremony, rather a bell that had long ago fallen from his boots in a long ago Tiger chase. It had a hopeful note, one that sharply contrasted with the somber notes of the prayer.

"_Lloy Askan susav thane_..." Murmured Tylor's most unlikely of petitioners.

The bell ran out again, and silence fell. The only sound was the echo of the last ringing of the bell and the whisper of water lapping against the shore. They spoke an old prayer, an old chant that no other worshiper of Martel would have used. It was one of the old prayers the forgotten prayers that did not mention Martel, a chant to sooth the mind and bring the peace of the night sky. The priest asked the holy light of moon and sun to walk a path to the mortal who would speak, the petitioner asked the light that he or she favored to guild their troubled heart. It was the only prayer that Lloyd really knew of the Martel church, oh Tylor had taught him a few others, but it was the only one the boy used and agreed with. Troubled heart was not a strong enough word. Some great poison had entered the boy's heart, or perhaps a wound left untended now could be seen and because of that it's bleeding distressed Lloyd so much. Whatever the cause of this pain Tylor could not guess, but the anger, the hidden anger, was illy hidden this night. It was a deep old anger rooted in desperation, desperation because Lloyd could not speak to anyone of it since Tylor had left so long ago, and it took a long time to spend. Tylor was good at waiting though, it seemed as if he spent half of his time waiting for someone to nerve up to tell him confessions or to vent there anger out on his ears. That was his job, came with the ribbon and robes as he was want to say.

"Feeling a little better?" Tylor asked as Lloyd nursed his bloody knuckle.

"Yeah, 'cept my hand hurts."

"Don't punch walls when you're angry then." Tylor said, and at his logic, now that Lloyd was better suited to following it, made him chuckle.

"Yeah I guess I was pretty dumb huh?"

"Anger does that." Tylor fished out some bread from his pocket and took a nibble, watching the moonlight on the sea, it was a full moon this night, and the waters almost lapped at the toes if you stood on the dock. You could take a step off the dock and onto water, and with the trick of the light think you were to walk on a silver road. As he understood it those of... less sober condition tended to do so on a regular basis. Not allowed to indulge in the drink that let him think that it actually was a road he had let childish fancy do so instead and had enjoyed the cold dunking a great deal. His superior of course hadn't appreciated him coming to service dripping, a fish stubbornly holding onto his hat by way of its teeth, but ah well. You only lived life once, best to fall into oceans and do dumb things so you had stories to whittle the long days of eternity away with. He smiled at the water, aware of Lloyd who was as always smiling at the stars.

"I want to look, I've been trying a little, but the others need me so much right now... and you know how it is at home, no help there." Even in exile Iselia was Lloyd's home, as it was Tylor's. They both were exiles to there homes, one banished by a mortal man the other banished by the mortal voice of a Goddess.

"I understand you know I'll always understand."

"Yeah... They just don't I guess."

"I looked, for a while I looked but I found someone to take that place, it was years later until I even remembered, and

when I did the guilt." Tylor sighed. "I gave up, I was younger then you when I gave up and accepted the substitute."

"It hurts... It hurts not knowing, and the head wall... it's never gone away you know."

"I understand, remember when I didn't and you got so mad. Never knew you could bite so hard or even hit that hard. You said no one would ever understand, and I said you had to make them, that if they didn't listen you just keep looking until you found someone who could and would. I'm sorry Dirk's never seen to it, I kept telling him and he got angry at me for it. Said what was buried best stayed buried or some such rot. You may never find your answer, but looking is better then not in my mind, and if you find something unpleasant always remember, who they are does not make you who you are. Now what else is there? You're still in knots my friend, so you best tell me or I'll tie a tail to you and make you run till you talk."

Lloyd chuckled, rubbed at the back of his neck, then pulled off his boots and dipped his toes in the water. Inspired Tylor followed suit, keeping his socks on just for the heck of it.

"Colette's going on the regeneration, you know that... but when I saw Remiel the first time... Remiel's Colette's angel father... I wasn't scared. Then at the seal of fire..."

"Back up, that's not how you tell a story." Tylor mock cuffed Lloyd on the back of his head, it was little more then a tap.

"Dwarven vow..."

"That's worse!" Tylor put a note of panic in his voice and Lloyd chuckled.

"Ok you're still nosy as ever."

"It's called interest in productive yet intimate details… no that sounded wrong... umm fine nosy fits." Tylor waved a finger in front of Lloyd's face. "But don't you even breath to Catling that I agreed to your term."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

"Good, now Catling went over what happened at the Martel temple, at least at the beginning so tell me what happened once you got inside and go from there."

"Alright, it went like this..."

xxx xxx xxx

Colette's lips moved, she had her head bowed facing a candle, the fire blazed behind her but she stood back to it, her face in gold tinged shadows. Her words in that soft whisper of a language he couldn't follow, flowed and made a soft peaceful mummer in his ears. She seemed so small in that dark, smaller then him, and that said a lot. He tried to mouse step down the stairs but a creaking board made him freeze halfway down. Lifting her head Colette smiled to the darkness.

"Whoever you are, it's alright to come down, I bet it's all cold and dark on that stair anyways."

Smiling, Genis took that offer, and Colette stared at him in surprise, but then it was a surprise that he was showing on his face as well.

"Hi Genis, why are you up?"

"I couldn't sleep." That was the truth or part of it anyways. He took the bench that ran a path alongside the table, the candle flickured between them; cast them both in its golden light.

"Nightmare?" She took his smaller hand in her own and he smiled.

"Something like that." He didn't mind having his hand held, no matter what Raine said, even though he knew he'd outlive Colette he knew she'd never hurt them. She wasn't like all other humans who hurt people that were different from themselves. "I was just restless... and thinking."

"Wanna talk?"

He looked up at her, she wouldn't try to talk him out of it, he knew that. She believed that everyone had a choice, to pick whatever path they wanted. It was something that she and Marche, and even Phardia fought about regularly. Lloyd never had heard about it, but once when Genis had visited after school he'd walked into it. Colette didn't fight like others, not with loud words or anger like Lloyd, or even logic like him and Raine, rather she just nodded her head and walked her own path. Phardia hadn't agreed to the Sage's becoming friends with Colette, and had been leery of Lloyd's friendship with her, at least that's what Raine had told him, but Colette by taking the path of friendship with them and indicating by sticking with it despite there words and preaching's. Eventually she had coaxed them to come along. And if you asked her, or anyone of her family, they were all bettered by Colette's stubborn streaks. So she'd always listened, and would only act to stop him if she really really disagreed with something. But he had a feeling she would agree with this.

"Yeah, you know in Triet when I told you about Marble..." Genis stroked his exsphere, and a small bit of warm energy flowed from it through him, giving him courage. "Cocao is Marble's daughter and... I need to see her, to tell her. But I need someone to cover for me, I'd ask Lloyd but when I knocked no one answered."

"He went out about an hour ago." Colette said softly. "That's when I woke up, and the inn keeper told me he had just left when I asked. I haven't been able to sleep since he left, silly huh?" 

"It's not silly, I sleep better when he's around too... it's just when Noishe goes to bed no one sleeps!" Genis managed a smile and Colette a laugh.

"He does have a silly snore doesn't he? Alright, I'll cover, but if Raine gets really worried I'm going to tell her alright."

And in saying that Genis knew he had all of ten minuets once Raine woke up to get back, but it was better then having Raine run in some wild direction looking for him.

"They live in the shop they own, Raine will know where it is." Genis smiled, squeezed Colette's fingers in thanks. "I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise, and tell Lloyd when he gets back where I went, so that if you get tired he can take over for you."

"I will." The blonde girl smiled and waved, he waved back and then dashed out into the cold night.

xxx xxx xxx

"Of course you were scared." Tylor snorted as Lloyd finished his story about the angel wings coming to Colette in Triet. If I saw Catling hurt and couldn't do anything about it I'd be scared and angry, you know when I'm mad I'm rasher then you and Dirk put together, I'd have called that angel down and probably smacked him into next week for making Catling go through this. You know I hate talk like Marche's talk. Sacrifice I understand in small doses, but what they ask of Catling is absolutely ridiculous. And I tell you this in strictest confidence Lloyd, if Catling were my child I would never allow the regeneration to go on. I'd get myself a very big sword to keep all the priests who'd protest from being a problem if I had to."

"But the world..."

"My child would mean more to me then the world, or be worth as much. I'd look for something, I'd do it myself just to spare someone else if I could, I'd forsake the priesthood and search the world for another way, any other way, just to spare my child. I'd do it for Colette if she hadn't forbade me from that. She wants to do it, believes it's the best thing, and so I can do nothing put pray that some other way presents itself."

"She forbade you from doing something!"

"She's got steel in her, she's just very quiet about it and doesn't raise as much fuss as certain others do."

"Yeah I'm loud I know." He sighed. "But being louds not gunna change a thing huh?"

"I doubt it." Tylor shared that sigh. "So did you really do that?"

"Do what?" Lloyd blinked, wondering where Tylor was going.

"Tell Genis to say 'are we there yet', and then you joined in, and then you got Catling to join in, all just to drive Kratos wild."

"He was being a jerk!" Lloyd growled. "He called Genis a worthless runt, me a arrogent brat, and was treating Colette like a two year old!"

"But for an hour, then poisoning him with Ms. Sage's cooking for initiation?" Tylor winced. "That's a tad cruel don't you think?"

"Try a sparring session with him and then talk to me about cruel..." Lloyd grumbled, recalling the bruises he'd picked up in Triet.

"Heh, his initiation was easier then mine, you had me eat that gunk and then spun me around, then made me ride Noishe while he was going full run all blindfolded... What is it with you poisoning people?"

"You try making dwarven stew when your eight and tell me how it comes out."

"Lloyd… all I make are sandwiches, toast, and the occasional bowl of porridge that's more lump then anything else."

"Hmm spinning him around... I wonder if..."

"If you do I get to watch." Tylor's eyes gleamed wickedly. "That or maybe we can trick him into putting on a tail."

"He'd scare your kids off." Lloyd smiled, glade that even though Tylor was a priest he was agreeing about the whole angel thing.

"I guess he would, speaking about fear... It's supposed to be my job to say "don't be scared, to take calm for the angel's are symbols of the great light of the goddess," and now that I've said that I can tell you what I really think." Tylor gripped Lloyd's shoulder. "I can't answer your questions, no mortal probably can, but if something feels wrong then you keep saying it just like with that head wall thing. It's going to make everyone very mad, at least at first, but if one of them has an sense in there head they'll pay attention to you eventually."

"I hate waiting, I want them all to just notice and no one does!" 

"They'll pay more heed to you after today. I can freely say those two adults should have seen what they were doing wrong on there own but the fact you did, and made them see it too, means they'll respect you more in the future."

"I thought I did what was right..."

"It was, you just shouldn't have to have done it." Tylor snorted. "I don't know whether you're brave or just rash, I'd of let them smack each other then gave them a earful after."

"I don't think I could have, Kratos would have hurt her Tylor. Does that fact that he could have made him a bad person, is Genis and Raine right?"

"Are they, I don't know? Has he ever hurt anyone else?"

In answer Lloyd pulled open the button that held the long neck of his shirt closed. A scar, little more then a thin line of white gleamed in the moonlight. Tylor gave it a long look, and then gave Lloyd a fierce look.

"You didn't mention that, if that's the man's idea of sparing I'll..." 

"No!" Lloyd grabbed Tylor's arm. "I surprised him in Triet and he apologized, it was an accident, he heard me and struck without thinking, it was like... like he was expecting to die if he didn't hit first."

"I'm still going to have long words with that one." Tylor growled. "And to Hell with the pacifist Martel oath, I'll leave my robes in the chapel to weasel out of that oath for an hour. I know a little now of why he might have hurt Genis, and maybe why he hurt you, but if he can't control it then he's a danger to everyone around him. It happens to the guard, the army when they've been in fights too long, any little surprise, a sound, and they go for a sword."

Sighing Lloyd agreed and changed subject, because if he didn't Tylor would hunt the mercenary tonight, and country born as he was even he knew wandering around after dark wasn't the safest thing in the world to be doing.

xxx xxx xxx

(A/N: Spoilers on Sage heritage, avoid this section if you haven't beat the game... You should look for the next series of xxx, Kasan)

"Hello?" He knocked, and then gasped when there came a bobbing light that drifted by the window. Though he wanted to come part of him wanted to run, but the streets loomed about him like stone scaled bests and the buildings leered at him like empty skulls. He was scared to run, scared to stay, so that kept him knocking and meekly calling out despite his wish to go back. The door swung open under his pale and shaking hand, and in the dark for one second... Tears stung behind his eyes, his lips moved to form the word but with no air behind it all he did was make a kind of squeak cough.

"Oh you poor thing! Come in, no one else but me right now so don't worry about bothering anyone." Hands gently ushered him, into the store that had so scared Kratos. Even in the dark it seemed friendly and warm, and he half expected to be given a coat and sent on his way. He was surprised when she asked him to join her upstairs, shocked that a human would see his pointed ears and let him in. His lips moved even before his brain could think of how stupid it was.

"But I'm a half elf!"

"You're not a Desian are you; if so they're taking shorter and shorter people in everyday." Her smile warmed her eyes, just like _hers_ had warmed.

"No... I'm not a Desian... I'd never hurt someone like that."

"Good, I hate to have to fetch Chocolat so late at night, she's my Desian bane, but you saw that didn't you?"

"She must of told you huh?"

"No, she didn't, now if you'd be a dear my legs are a little touchy and a shoulder would be helpful..."

Blushing Genis took Cocao's wrinkled hand in his own, and wondered with a flash of pain if Marble had had 'touchy' legs. If so the Desian's wouldn't have cared, they'd have made her work just like everyone else. Bowing his head, thinking of what had happened to Marble; he gulped, and gasped when he saw Cocao's leg. It was burnt, covered in scars, and then the dress whispered over it. Catching the sound the old woman smiled slightly.

"They wanted my little girl once, I made sure they never came back but one of them, a wizard, hurt me badly. It's not bad now mind, just a little on the touchy side."

"Oh..." Genis shivered, wondered what kind of horrible person would cast a fireball on someone's leg. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Cocao sniffed, and suddenly Genis thought of Chocolat. "It was worth it, they never hurt Grand Mother or my baby ever again." 

Genis pulled open the door, and came to a room sporting a three chairs and a table, some pictures hung from the walls. He smiled at the floral images, the true flowers and the bird houses too small to hold any birds that had beautiful pictures painted upon them.

"You like those?" Cocao smiled. "I made them a few years ago." 

"There nice..." Genis knew the rest of the house, knew every room as if he had walked it himself, in a way he had, Marble's words had walked him through this home a hundred times.

"I'm in the mood for some coffee, by looks of you; you could use a sip of something warm. And I think I could find some cookies I made earlier today." Genis couldn't say anything, seeing his mood Cocao ordered him to sit and retreated into the kitchen for a little to make what she offered, and to compose herself. There were shadows about this little one, shadows of sadness; she had not missed the haunted look when he had entered her shop earlier today. Nor did she miss it now. She came out with all promised, seated herself in a fluffy chair covered with pink fabric after serving him, then waited. 

"I... I knew Marble..." He whispered, staring at his boots, they kicked against the leather stool he had taken as his own for the visit. "She was at the ranch in Iselia, and I used to live in Iselia."

Cocao said nothing, nibbled her cookie and after a while he did the same. Looked at everything it seemed but her, and that told her, even as he stumbled through his tale with tears lodged in his throat half strangling him, what had happened.

"I met her... I was walking home from Lloyd's and decided to take a short cut home. I saw the fence, and I saw a few of the people there in the camp, and I saw her..."

_"Child you must leave!" The gray haired human whispered. "Please, leave, they'll be back any moment!"_

_And so he had left, trembling he'd fled onto the familiar path that now had a break in it that he'd never forget. He lay all night staring at the ceiling, Raine could not coax him to sleep nor talk that evening. Later that day he had not eaten lunch, the glimpse of those starved faces, and haunted eyes in turn haunted him, during lunch he had slipped away, bag in his shaking hands, mind that never rested tormenting. He avoided Lloyd and Colette, picked his way into the forest. As if in pity the monsters did not attack him, a lost child who was shaking so he could not have cast his magic or run to save his life._

_Stupid, his logic railed, you know what goes on there you know what you'll see don't go back. They'll take you in; they'll hurt you if they see! _

_Yet still his feet carried him, he slipped behind a boulder, from there to a bush. Grey clad humans with numbers drawn in there arms sat listlessly in a yard. They looked out from behind a cage of steel bars wrapped in barbed wire. Red stained the fence, some one not too long ago had tried to climb it and recently the corpse had been removed. A few scraps of fabric still hanging on the spikes attested to that._

_Why are you here? Are you sick, mental? This is a ranch of death, are you enjoying watching humans suffer like this!_

_He whimpered, from behind a screen of greenery he whimpered and one of the humans, the old woman looked up and saw him._

_"Little one, what are you doing here?" Her voice was quiet, raspy, he'd never heard a human sound like that, and curiosity made him poke his head out. She was older then Phardia! Phardia had to be one of the oldest humans he'd ever seen!_

_"I... I don't know..." He wrung his hands, the bag crumpled in his hands, and suddenly he did know why he was here._

_Wordless was there response as his small hand slid between bar and wire, ghosted between the spikes to offer an apple. She took it, the elderly woman with tears in her eyes. She dug into it with her fingernails, ripped it a part as best she could and offered it to those nearby, his sandwich was split with more ease, and she reached through bar and wire to offer him the last piece._

_"You shouldn't go hungry, you're still growing little one."_

_He blinked back the tears in his eyes, smiled and shook his head._

_"I already ate," he lied. "There were two sandwiches." She looked at him, saw though his lie, and though half dead with hunger offered again._

_"I... have to go..." He whispered, shaking, drawing away from that skeletal hand and its offering. "I... have to go home... My sister..."_

_"I'll pray to Martel to grant you a safe path." The old woman whispered. "Safe path and fair light to you young one…" _

_He had come back, this time with some food taken from their pantry, Raine would get mad at him but it didn't matter. It meant nothing for they had needed him. Whispered prayers of thanks to him came from there blood caked lips, the old woman had smiled, and unlike all the others who had merely taken his offering with a word of thanks she had gently patted his head._

"_Who are you brave one?"_

_At her words he blushed, and rubbed the back of his head acting for all the world like Lloyd._

"_It's no big deal," He whispered as her fingers gently stroked his hair. "We've got plenty of food at home."_

"_I didn't ask that," Her eyes sparkled and she favored him with a smile. "I asked you name young one, and it means more to us then you could ever know."_

"_Genis Sage, and yours?"_

"_My name is Marble Wyath. The man over there is Nathen Savst he's from Triet, the woman over there is Casandra Brightwater and she's from Luin, and I'm from PalmaCosta."_

_For one second he thought how interesting it must be to meet other people from all of those other places. That thought faded away to horror as he considered the circumstance of there meeting. They met in the yard when limbs failed them and they had so little left that the Desian's let them snatch a short span of rest.  
_

"When… After Lloyd and I saved her from the whipers they must have done something to her, because they turned her into a monster and turned her on Iselia. We had to fight her, and the Desian's, and we were exiled…" Genis sniffled, hid his tears behind a screen of hands. "I'm sorry; I never should have gone, if I hadn't…"

Slender hands enfolded him, held him like she used to try to hold him. He was kissed gently, and he allowed his hands to be pulled away by hers.

"If you hadn't gone that first day Mother would have died, others would have died. Your generosity and courage allowed her to live longer and helped a lot of other people Genis. Thank you."

He looked her straight in the eyes, unable to believe.

"Yes, I said thank you, you made her happy Genis. She was lonely sometimes, missed having her children around her in that horrible place and you gave that to her by being with her and telling her of your friends. She knew Genis, she knew how much her advice and council meant to you. But did you know how much you coming to her meant? When you're alone and scared like she was in a horrible place, it helps when someone you care for comes by, it makes the fear go away for just a little. Now," Cocao set aside her cookie that was half eaten, Genis had nibbled his to pieces not tasting it in the slightest. "You look a little warmer, but I think I know something to warm you up all the way. Do you know mother's recipe? Heavens knows she's taught it to me a thousand times and I've never gotten it right, they always come out so stale."

"They taste fine to me…" Genis blushed, not really knowing how they tasted truth be told.

"Oh hush, you're a horrible liar you know that?" She waved a digit in front of his face, just as Marble had done when he'd felt sorry for himself for too long. "Now out of that chair, I'm not making this batch by myself."

"It's the middle of the night…" He protested meekly, still hesitant, still feeling guilty.

"Rubbish, if I want to make cookies I make them, time of day can just go stuff itself!"

She offered him a hand and he shyly took it. Together they entered the kitchen and began to work together side by side on, of all things, chocolate chip cookies. Soon tears were forgotten in laughter, lecture, and an incident when he decided to try to summon a gust of wind to bring down the flour and caked half a wall in a coat of white powder.

Xxx xxx xxx

Hours had passed, the moon was falling from its perch. Luna was going to her home, she'd glide over the tower of mana and then taking her train of shadows and stars behind her retreat before Aska's light. He spoke of Aska and Luna, of things unspoken to all put a green pair of ears, and had left feeling better and more suited to bed. He yawned, stretched, and rubbed the hilt's of his swords with tingly fingers. All of him dripped, parts of him tingled from the cold dunking, and Tylor had left him running down the street, bells and laughter making a trail of sound behind him. Lloyd smiled, for the first time since that afternoon he smiled.

'_You are who you are, no mater your parents_,' How could he have forgotten that? He'd said the same thing to Colette, and he had said the same thing to himself years ago. Yet he had forgotten and it helped to remember, made him feel more like himself.

'_You get tangled in the vows and promises, you forget yourself sometimes. You aren't the vows, there admirable but they don't fit you completely, just like the book doesn't fit me all around. When that happens we take what we can, and we move right along_.'

Tylor could be so cool sometimes; he knew stuff kind of like Kratos. And thinking of the mercenary, Kratos owed him a huge favor. He'd talked Tylor out of pounding the mercenary senseless, talked Tylor out of yelling at Kratos, but hadn't been able to pull enough strings to get Tylor to avoid talking to him. So what if Kratos knows I talk to Tylor about the journey? I doubt he'd care, and if he does I might not be able to outrun the mercenary but Lloyd'd yet meet an adult who could climb a tree. There was always an escape route open, if only he looked.

Images of an infuriated Kratos yelling at him while he was nice and safe in the branches of a tree flashed though his mind, troubling questions of where he'd find that tree didn't even cross his mind. A snicker from behind made him turn, made him grip his blades and whirl.

"Hey there, where's your white coat buddy and your freaky shadow friend now?"

Slipping from the shadows of an abandoned building came a guy about his age, wearing a dark red tunic, black pants, and a miss match of steel armor that made him look spiky all around. It was one of the people who'd taken the book of Regeratitn… that didn't sound quite right, oh well.

"Nearby." He lied easily enough. "Hey," he made his voice a show of false friendliness. "Did you know the city guards are looking for you? Looks like you took a book that wasn't yours."

"I made it mine kid." The guy smiled, drew his sword. "Like I'm gunna make your ass mine to kick."

"Phht…" Lloyd took a few steps back and cursed in his head, the place was a mess of abandoned shops. "I'm not going to fight a jerk like you, I've got other things to do."

"Really? What a shame, you'll just have to be late for 'em." Knife in one hand sword in the other Lloyd cursed a little louder in his head. Shit he'd just started training with Kratos on knife sword fights. They hadn't even fought like that yet in practice, just talked about how it was different from sword shield battles.

"I don't want to fight." Lloyd snapped, taking another step back, he realized he'd just have to run to avoid this. Maybe if the bastard had ran into him earlier he would have wanted to fight, but now all he wanted was to sleep. To let go and let everything sort it self out while he napped; sleep on his problems so to say.

"Really? Something tells me you want to." Pulling a scrap of something wet and green out from his pocket he threw it between them, it fell into a pool of torch light, it was fur dipped in blood. At Lloyd's growl of rage and narrowed eyes the guy laughed. "Yeah you really wanna fight now huh freak? You try to run kid and my bro will go back to that stable your mutt's at and finish cutting him up, I need a new cloak anyways and green 'd go so good with red you know?"

Lloyd drew his swords, trembled with rage.

"This is more like it!" Going into a lazy crouch, more exaggerated then Kratos' but still a sign that the guy knew what he

was doing, the imposter smiled. "Come on kid, let's see which one of us is the better Lloyd huh?"

Lloyd snarled an insult in dwarven then tapping his blades in a formal dwarven challenge he charged.

Xxx xxx xxx

"Where's the Book?" He slammed the small girl into a brick wall that was between two houses that over looked the inn, it was chillingly close to where the others rested and it made him weary. In his mind this looked like an assassination attempt, and she an assassin, so he was showing no mercy. He tightened his grip, and she coughed, thrashed and whimpered, her hands that had once been clawing at his one went slack. He repeated himself, a soft lethal whisper that promised death by his bare hands dare she not answer or tried subterfuge.

"Ceron's got it!" She gasped, white cloak plastered to her, tangling against her. The false symbols of Martel were fouled from contact with the alley's wall. She was telling the truth this time, so he loosened his grip. She panted like a half strangled dog, and he knew what that looked like for he had a specimen less then two feet away. Still in the vise of his one handed grip, unable to free herself from his hand around her throat, she began to cry. He glared up at her and she trembled, the tears stopped.

"Why did you have my friend tied up with you?"

"Friend? It's a freakin' do-!" He drew a knife considered it, then looked at her. She got the message and begged and pleaded and apologized to Noishe. "I was supposed to skin him if Lych came back unbloodied!" She howled, writhing in his grip as her soul would writhe in the fires of whatever after life she believed in. She'd see those fires shortly if she didn't keep evading his questions and dragging this out.

"Lych?" 

"The guy in red, if he comes by I'm supposed to skin the mutt!"

"Why would he come by?" Kratos hissed, this wasn't pertaining to the book, but had a scent of wood smoke about it.

"If the guy in red... what's his name? Lloyd that's it! If he runs Lych's supposed to come here!"

"Runs from what!" Kratos growled, and the girl nearly curled up and died from his rage.

"Lych wants to fight him, if the kid chickens then I'm supposed to skin the dog!"

And that would explain the flap of skin that had been missing and the bloodied knife. Kratos tightened his grip and as the woman writhed under his grasp. He considered letting her die, but she had information, information he needed. And really this was petty evil, childish vindictiveness in adult form. Anyone else could deal with these animals just as well as he; he didn't have time to kill roaches anyways. He let her go and she collapsed in a puddle of animal piss. Grimly he pinned her down with a boot, allowed her to smell and taste the stuff.

"If you talk, tell me everything, I might not kill you."

"Lych will kill me!" She whimpered.

Kratos merely drew his sword, slid the point across her pale skin, and traced a path of thin line of red from her temple to her jaw, using the flat of his blade to push back her hair. He stared at her throat for a long moment, considered his sword, and then with a kick rolled her over. On her back, to terrified to move, to scream she lay in the filth that was piled between the two houses. Dorr it seemed had been skimping on public restoration and waste disposal projects of late. All the better for him, he didn't mind the smell, not needing to breath as fast as a woman who was falling into a panic attack.

"I will kill you," he promised in a silken whisper. "It shall hurt, I will make it hurt in ways you can not imagine. I will ram my sword into your guts." He lifted the blade, wasted a bit of power to make it glow red, and he put the tip against her vest. The white fabric began to darken, smolder, and he smiled a thin little smile into her terror filled face. "Only an inch or two you understand so that it hurts but doesn't quite kill. I'll make a path of those in areas I know aren't fatal and leave you to either bleed to death or sicken and die. You'll talk of course, but I wont stray from my path once it's started, you'll tell me everything to make the pain stop and I wont break my sworn word, I'll waste my time killing you then leave and hunt down the rest of your group."

"Not Faith, she doesn't know what we're doing's wrong!" The false Chosen whimpered, thinking of that orange clad girl perhaps.

"Unless you talk, and talk quickly, I shall."

So she spoke, Ceron was out of town and therefore out of reach, damn the fates that would make him keeper of the book. Faith was at the university, trying to find out more of the book since none of them could read angelic, and Lych after a fit of brooding had talked her –his girlfriend Kratos presumed- into pulling this sick little stunt. What she couldn't tell him however was where Lych was, he'd been frustrated by the fact that Lloyd wasn't exploring town by himself or with Genis, and after kidnapping Noishe and no one noticing _that_, he'd been ready to skin Noishe alive and leave the pelt hanging from the rafters for someone to find in the morning. That was until a very distracted Lloyd had wandered out and walked right by them without noticing a bloody thing. Luck had changed, as had the plan, and Lych went off hunting leaving his girlfriend to crouch in the filth with a thrashing demon dog for company.

"Find this Faith of yours, and stay with her," He snarled, sheathing his weapon. "Tell Lych the truth and he probably will not kill you, if he does it's hardly my concern."

He spent a second to put a glowing hand to Noishe's wound that was in the inside of the four legged creature's right foreleg. It was deep, and the wound's position had made Noishe unable to walk, tended for now the dog found it's feet and gave his captor not even a moments glance. He began to sniff the ground outside the alley without anyone's command. The girl's eyes widened at the show of intelligence, and in Kratos' mind it was the first hint of intelligent thought he'd seen from her. Perhaps she might honestly consider his words, and consider what she was doing, perhaps but unlikely. He spent no more time with her, followed Noishe into the gloom choked streets of PalmaCosta.

Xxx xxx xxx xxx

"That it kid?"

Blade snapped against blades, and the knife slipped through to draw a line of dripping red across his arm. Grunting in pain, he stepped back, staggered was more like it, and his blades dragged against the coble stone streets leaving a trail of sparks. There were not guards here, they stood in attention in the pools of light, forsaking the darkness to those who favored it and equally dark deeds were committed in the shadows of the city of Sylvarant's hope it seemed. He barely could hold onto his blade, his hands and arms were covered with nicks as whatever his name was slowly bled him out. I was a nasty trick, a vile trick, he'd take little jabs and cuts and wait for Lloyd's arms to go numb. And it was working, he only knew he held his swords because he kept checking, because he was pouring his will in place of his blood to his fingers and kept them clenched.

"I'm not done yet."

"Tough brat, aren't ya?"

"Shut up!" He charge and at the last second side stepped his foe and spun his blade so that it ran alongside him like a sheild. The sharp edge gained the strength of a slash from his foes wild rush, from his foes passing. I was one of Kratos' tricks, he'd explained it using the tip of his blade to draw out the scenarios it could be used for on a plank while they'd sailed on Max's boat. You took the energy of an enemies reckless run and let them bruise or gouge themselves on passing. It wasn't tricky against large monsters or foolish opponents, but this guy had proven to be smart, and Lloyd spun once he felt a tremor run up along his sword telling him the guy had totally passed him. He spun as did the red clad guy, and Lloyd barely managed to catch the fury driven slash that would have severed his spine.

Hissing in pain he staggered back, broke the attack off and put a hand to his side. The red tunic darkened red, it was the first real hit Lloyd had nailed on the guy. Oh he'd smashed the bastard's nose in for him in the beginning, and had made a cut along the jerk's leg, but nothing too serious. This was serious; a wound that if not treated and healed wrong could lead to being crippled because you had to be able to turn your waist to put that behind a swing or a dodge, and losing that for even a short time could do heck to your swordsmanship.

"Give up…" Lloyd gasped, wondering how much longer he could hold up now, not much, he was shaking from exhaustion and cold.

No response, save a sharp kick that Lloyd barely managed to block with a wall of crossed blades, while he avoided the bone breaking force behind the steel tipped shoe his numb arms gave up on him. Both swords went flying into the darkness, clanged against the stones some ways off, and he fell to his knees unable to stand.

Sword to his throat Lloyd froze, stared into his enemies eyes unable to even feel pain much less afraid. Rage, hot angry fury poured from the man, lapped against him and yet did not touch Lloyd. Lifting the sword in the manner of an executioner Lloyd's foe grinned at him with a hungry gaze he was all too familiar. Lloyd cringed back, tried to curl away from the attack. A roar from the shadows made them both turn.

There was a blur of green and silver and the sword fell to the stones as its owner was wrestling three hundred pounds of ticked dog, fighting to keep those fangs away from his throat. Eyes closing, wanting nothing more to sleep but not daring because the way Noishe was going he was going to kill the guy, Lloyd tried to call his dog off.

"Don't bother." Came a familiar voice, Kratos joined him, laying his sword against the cobble stones and taking one of Lloyd's arms in his hands. The mercenary hissed in sympathetic pain and Lloyd grimaced at the sight of his mauled arms. "Noishe kick the bastard in his man parts for me or something before you rip his throat out." Kratos called, then with hands sheathed in a soft silver blue the mercenary muttered a few words and that light slid across each cut and became water. He was faintly aware of water lapping around him; it came from the ground, rose like a great snake, and funneled through Kratos' raised hand to wrap around Lloyd's arm in a cold moist gauntlet. The other arm was taken up, and again came the water. Sighing, looking drained for the first time since they started this journey, Kratos closed his eyes and sagged weakly into Lloyd.

"Noishe!" Lloyd barked, seeing he was still struggling with what's his name. "Forget him, Kratos needs help!"

With one final snarl Noishe kicked his enemy, who now looked as bloody as Lloyd had been. Unable to get his teeth into the fight Noishe had dragged his he claws over the man's thrashing form. And even thought Lloyd regularly filed them down they had done enough damage to make the man hard to look at. He wasn't dead, but fell limp as Noishe left him alone, probably fainted from relief or terror, or both. Had it been him Lloyd would have fainted a long time ago in the fight.

Shifting around in the water that was fast disappearing into a nearby drain Lloyd called Noishe again. He wanted to take the mercenary, work him onto Nosihe's back, but a quick test of that idea proved he couldn't do it even when the dog was laying down right next to them. Lloyd's arms wouldn't stop shaking and he was just too weak, and when the last attempt made him drop Kratos face first in the water...

"Forget it," He croaked, when Noishe scooted closer on his belly and gave Lloyd a hopeful look. It was too much of a fight to support the man on his shoulder. He was too heavy! "Get Raine, hurry!"

"Whine…" Noishe licked the mercenary and gave Lloyd a look that begged him to try again.

"Noshy I can't keep this up, you've gotta get Raine!"

"Whine!" 

"Stop arguing! I... can't…" His body was shaking from the cold water and blood loss. "Just… go…"

Running off the massive dog went to –hopefully- do as ordered. And when he was gone the man in a mess of armor, cloth, and blood, rolled over. Slowly the imposter found his feet.

"Thought I was dead, didn't you?" He croaked, eyes blazing. "I'm not dead yet, and I'll kill one of you, don't care which one it is now… sos long as one of you bastards go down." He lifted the knife, somehow in the fight with Noishe if had been forgotten. It winked like a malicious star, then hissed through the air as it flew.

Xxx xxx xxx

Something was pounding on there door.

"Genis… I'll answer, go back to…"

She reached out to pat his head and felt a lumpy hairless mass that smelled of dust. She reached in her half befuddled mind and either Genis had shrunk and become very fluffy or he was gone. Her eyes flew open, and the door almost fell on its hinges, there was a frantic panicked barking on the other side telling her that her guest was Noishe.

"What in Martel's name!" She pulled back the covers, no Genis, his boots were gone, and at the sound of her voice the pounding halted for all of a heart beat before picking up volume. "I'm coming!" She yelled, not thinking of the illogic of talking to a dog as she fought to her feet. Spotting her boots exactly where she'd left him, by Genis' right boot, she worked them on, snatched her staff and kicked something in the dark on her way to the door. Something small, something metallic, a key? She didn't have time, not now, the howls started again, and as if Noishe was sensing her hesitance and not liking it he went up a to shrill octaves that no dog should ever have been able to reach. She threw the door open, and in the shadows, behind Noishe, was a scared Colette.

"What's going on!" She snapped, looking to the one person who could talk.

"Noshy came from outside all wet and ran to your room and started howling." Colette whimpered, in her hands was a length of ribbon. One of Lloyd's ribbons that would hang around his throat lay in Colette's trembling hand. "He had this in his mouth Professor!"

"Where's Genis?"

"Visiting Cocao!"

"Go to him, bring him here, I don't care what he's doing, if he's not there come straight back here and wait!"

"Yes professor…" She hesitated, wanting to go with Noishe no doubt, she was scared for Lloyd, confident Genis was safe. Well Raine didn't share that confidence!

"Now Colette, run!"

Colette did so, and Noishe growled, slid onto his belly in the middle of the inn and looked at her. She'd seen Lloyd do this before but never dreamed it would be her swinging her legs on the mess of hot fur. With a growl Noishe ran, his paws scarcely seemed to touch the ground, one second they were in the inn and the next in the dark shadow streaked night. Closing her eyes, for riding Noishe was uncomfortably like flying; Raine prayed the dog knew where he was going and held on for dear life.

Xxx xxx xxx

Light streamed through the window, fell on his face, and he cracked open an eye, it was by far a better stream then the one he had woken to earlier that evening… or morning, he wasn't too sure of the time his sight had been obscured by red. He'd woken to Lloyd out cold, Raine sliding off of Noishe's back, her pale worried face locked on her pupil. Confused Kratos had wondered why she should be concerned; he'd tended the worst of the wounds already. The taste of iron, salt, ad a gummy lump of hair fell into his eyes as he began to come back fully to himself. Lloyd was bleeding, he'd fallen, no they'd fallen over. He reached up shake Lloyd awake when his fingers had brushed against steel. A knife, someone had knifed Lloyd, and for good measure had decided to rob him as well. With the last remains of his healing spell soaked into his clothes and some of it still dripping into the sewer system Kratos dared not raise the energy in his weakened state such exertion might do worse then kill him. He might have dared had Raine not been present, but she was so he let her take Lloyd in her arms and work the dagger out… So much red, so much blood, gagging he'd turned away shaking, and for the first time in ages allowed the weakness of horror to rob his stomach of its contents…

He felt a ghost of that sickness in him even as the sun stroked his face with golden feather soft fingers. He could hear the breath of someone sleeping nearby, and dredged up the energy to turn. Lloyd wrapped up in a mess of bandages, mana, and gels; lay looking for all the world like a cardinal chick in a most unlikely of nests. He must have been feeling better and more in control if his humor had come back to its normal dry self. He'd been professionally undressed, checked for wounds by pale elven fingers, and given an earful for not fetching her before going out to play vigilante. He'd pointed out in a dry tone that if he had come any later Lloyd would have been dead, not hurt, and Raine had left, forgetting in her anger to redress him. So garbed in undergarments, bandages, and blanket he stared at the golden tinted world of late morning, thinking on nothing save the fight.

There were holes in his recollection, times when he wasn't awake and therefore did not know what had happened. Raine had made one accusation that he had lead to this by fighting the girl and its very nature had set him into such a rage that she'd almost abandoned her post. Colette and Genis left the room while the adults had a not so friendly _chat_ not that it spared them from hearing at least Kratos' half of it. Growling in anger at the reminder that this was his fault the mercenary flexed his fingers and wondered why in God's name Noishe hadn't killed the bastard before fetching Raine. Something must have happened; Lloyd probably had panicked seeing Kratos fall unconscious and ordered the strange shaped being to fetch the healer. Lips curling in a mix of pleasure, for worry was a form of affection, and frustration, Kratos stared at nothing and listened. There was the muffled calls of merchants selling there wares, a dog barking, children laughing, and of course not hampered by a closed window was the soft drawing and releasing of breath form Lloyd. As he listened his mind ran its patterns of analysis, counter analysis, and frustration, all the while planning he wondered if this was the end of things. The man, Lych, was vicious, spiteful, so no there was no end in sight… yet. Perhaps at the next town he could do some hunting, if he caught any of them, he decided with a grim anticipation, it would make the demon that haunted Luin seem tame. 

A knock at the door told him that they had a visitor.

"Come in!" He growled, hoping it wasn't Colette or Genis, Raine could be a decent and deserving target of his anger at the moment. Genis would openly worry, bring food, and leave. Colette would openly cry, fret, and have to be taken away by Raine. Out of the other two options Noishe liked the first and Kratos liked the second. Colette, before she'd became hysterical, was at least a good doctor, Genis was sorely lacking on that front and hurt more then helped. The only reason Noishe liked Genis at all, Kratos presumed, was because the boy was lavish with giving treats. Noishe had been eating a large number of chocolate chip cookies, since Kratos' stomach was being rather touchy of late.

He blinked, missing bells and cape, missing his ghostly white robes and marks of his office, was Father Tylor.

"Expecting Catling Mr. Aurion?" Tylor asked, walking soundlessly in the room and taking a seat in between the two beds.

Interesting choice, Tylor was in perfect position to help either of them if they needed it. Raising an eyebrow, but not bothering to respond Kratos slithered deeper in the obscuring blanket, and favored Tylor with his silent glare of death.

"You're as charming sick as you are well aren't you?" Tylor grinned and despite himself the mercenary relaxed the glare just a bit. "Riane told me a little, Catling a little more, so I came by."

"You'll be missing noon service." Kratos pointed out, hoping the man would leave him to his thoughts and lone watch.

"Catling, Raine, and Genis are covering, or rather Catling's covering and the others are going along for sake of her protection."

"Humph." Kratos closed his eyes, hoping that if he mimed sleeping the man would grow uncomfortable and leave.

"If I had gone with you back to the inn you probably wouldn't have been bothered Lloyd." Tylor muttered, there was the barest of sounds, of a hand caressing hair.

A thin spark of rage touched Kratos, he snapped his eyes open and his glare was so fierce the priest felt it and turned. If that rage was given even a slip of fuel he'd find the reserves to climb out of bed and got for the man's throat.

"He was with you last night?"

"He needed an ear, something was bothering him and no one listened to him so he went looking for me." 

"Why didn't you stay with him then!"

"I went part of the way," Tylor's lips curled. "Sad and I was hoping you'd at least ask."

"Ask what?"

Tylor shrugged, turned to Lloyd and patted the unwounded shoulder. Kratos repeated himself; fire ran through his tone and still the priest seemed unfazed, unafraid.

"What did he talk to you of last night?"

Again nothing, it was then rather belatedly Kratos realized that was the wrong question to ask.

"What was... no is, troubling him?"

"Family, he's looking and not finding anything. He feels guilty because he wants to look but that takes away from the regeneration journey." Tylor pulled a strand of chestnut from that pain lined face on the pillow. "He also has been wrestling with the idea of all the Regeneration entails. After all to see the physical embodiment of someone else's faith and not your own is a bit rough. He's angry because he doesn't follow Martel and everyone he loves is being dragged into this without a reason that he understands. Plus his total denial of the Goddess has been making Catling try to convert him. Quite a mouthful that." Tylor made a face. "Of course it took him longer to say it all last night and vent, but then I think what's worse is he only has one set of ears to listen to him."

"Quite a plateful for someone to handle," Kratos agreed, no longer wondering at the purpose of the urgent walks Lloyd had taken with Noishe when they'd been in Izoold and Triet.

"I couldn't find who did it. I looked, stupid I know, but you'd expect me to be rather stupid hmmm?" Tylor was again talking to Lloyd. "What could I do if I found anything at all?" Tylor sighed.

"I already found who did it, they got away, but only for now."

Both men shared a long look, and then Tylor grinned, it was not a friendly grin that would have appeased any child by any means.

"Good."

Strange how warrior and priest were on the exact same page with one another, especially since the priest was a member of a pacifist order. 

"Goddess of my heart… this is a rather funny echo of the past. I met him half dead on the side of the road and his dwarf father came in half dead with exhaustion. Here he is half dead, his respected swords teacher hot on his tail half dead with exhaustion! If you were only a few years older I'd be having some thoughts about you two!"

Kratos snorted, shifted a bit on the bed, careful to keep his form hidden under the blanket.

"Let's finish this proper! A bit of tea for some sentimental old fools?" 

"Why not?" Kratos sighed, "It'll be the first bit of nourishment I've had in a day. And what was that last bit about 'respected swords teacher'?"

"Goddess the irony of this… I'll make the tea, we'll split a kettle and talk it over. Something tells me we'll be at it a few hours."

Xxx xxx xxx

"So you and Dirk spent an evening like this when he was little, on this same topic?" Kratos sipped his cup, clad now in a clean tunic and pair of pants. He'd made quite a sight getting dressed under the blanket, but on off chance Lloyd woke up he was not leaving the sanctuary of bed till he was dressed. The boy had enough nightmares as it was he wasn't adding to it.

"Yes and yes." Tylor smiled. "Martel, lass, you have one great sense of humor." He lifted his cup and Kratos joined in on that toast. 

Kratos sipped on his cup, eyes thoughtful. "Your recipe?" 

"Cinnamon, a few odd and end sweet leaves that are local to Iselia, some mint, and a pinch of ground rose."

"Not bad." Kratos who had a bit of a dislike for most teas –mainly because all the ones he tasted were for medicinal purposes- found this one acceptable.

"Not a tea person?"

"I have my reasons."

Tylor favored Kratos with a long look, and rolled his eyes.

"Well I can't beat you at your own game of staring, so I'm not going to try. When I talked to Dirk it was more of explaining how not to pressure Lloyd. He was trying to push Lloyd into naming him as father, as I know of it Lloyd never called Dirk father till he turned twelve. He took the last name as his own about then because enough people started doing it that it caught. I had a lot of long talks, was a family priest to them really, though I never did nag at them to convert, it was more of a running joke between us then anything else. Anyways with Dirk it was 'be patient, listen to him, and remember he's human not a dwarf'. For Lloyd it was 'be patient, he'll figure it out about Noishe eventually, and why weren't you at class' yesterday?'"

"He has not much improved since you left academically." Kratos said with a note of distaste in his voice.

"Something tells me he will; I can see you ramming books down his throat the whole journey."

"Perhaps, provided Raine does not drive me off with her staff first."

"She'll understand eventually. She's a woman who thinks with her head, she can rationalize your reaction and rationalize reasons to get rid of you for it, but she can't understand it just yet."

"And you do?" Kratos chuckled, "provided you know what I'm talking about."

"About you nicking Genis or you nearly decapitating Lloyd?" Tylor said in an ice flecked voice.

Kratos winced at that tone, cringed from the man as he echoed his own conscious.

"You're a warrior, you kill for a living Mr. Aurion and instincts develop. You have some control, or else Lloyd and Genis would be dead." Tylor downed the tea with a grimace. "Not a comforting image that, and if Lloyd hadn't been so damn persuasive last night I'd be taking Raine's side of things and changing Catling's mind about you. She trusts you; bless her heart, so does Lloyd and Noishe. If she didn't have anyone on her side in that trust you would have been told to leave long ago."

The idea that some how he had earned Lloyd's trust and respect made a warm tingle run through him. He kept it of his face, bowed whilst sitting, and went to rolling the empty cup over in his hands.

"Do you know of Lloyd's oath?" Tylor asked at last. "Why he started it, any inkling of why or how?"

Kratos shook his head.

"When he explains it to you –and I think he will before this all gets sorted out- a lot will make sense."

"You passed it?" Kratos asked, setting aside the cup.

"Almost ten years ago… the initiation was absolute…" A noise from the bed made the priest roll his eyes. "Well the slug a bed awakens!"

"That's Noshy…" Came a grouchy voice, a pillow was promptly pulled over Lloyd's face. "He's green."

"You're working on red though."

"I like red… Why's my arms hurt so much?"

"Still muddled from the fight," Kratos explained. "Raine gave him something for the pain, it should last all day."

"Whatcha doin' here Tylor?"

"Ditching priest class," the man chuckled, "you've got to stop doing stupid things Lloyd, what was it this time, taking on twenty wolves by yourself, or pulling Ms. Fluffkins from Phardia's apple tree?" 

"Both…" Lloyd cracked a smile, which he reviled to them by pulling the pillow aside.

Fluffkins? Kratos mouthed, the priest winked and said nothing to him.

"Well I'm glad your awake and doing better." Tylor patted Lloyd's un-bandaged arm and offered a warm smile to his old pupil. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"No… fine…" Lloyd blinked. "Where's everyone?"

"The church at the town square conducting service, see I know how to ditch in style, I get other people to do my work or me."

Lloyd chuckled, then blinked up at the priest.

"E'vn Kratos? Didn't think 'e liked church…"

"I don't." Kratos sighed. "So I am trapped in here with your snoring for company."

"I don snore Noshy does!"

"I guess so, it's more of a squeaking really…"

"Sqeakin'?"

"Chipmunk like." Tylor added, lips curling into a wide smile. "Well since you heretics might contaminate me I'll leave you two alone for a bit. If you need anything," Tylor said to the mercenary. "Call out; the help will hear you and I won't leave the inn so I'll be easy to find."

Kratos nodded.

"Chipmunk?" Lloyd sounded… pained.

"He is exaggerating Lloyd, he thinks it is funny."

"It _is_ funny!" Tylor huffed going for the door.

"Not!" Lloyd protested.

"Is too!" 

"Is not," Kratos mock growled, and Tylor outnumbered ducked out of the room before one of the swordsman remembered there craft and went after him blades at the ready.

xxx

Healing came faster with two people who could coax the body to mend with a few words and touch. Raine's touch, her power, was warm. The light would sheath her hands, and glide from her cupped palms to his injury. It wrapped his skin in golden light and the injuries in warmth, warmth that would pool around the injury, settle under the light that encircled his hurts. On pulling out of a healing there would be a final flash of light, one second of searing heat, then a throbing warmth would cradle the disappearing scar for a few hours. Kratos' touch was cold, it set every hair to pricking forward and extended contact would leave him physically shivering. Unfazed by the Artic cold -Genis' description Lloyd didn't even know what an Artic was- Kratos would set his hand an inch from the wound where the cold would stab into the cut and numb it. Unlike Raine's golden light, which was blinding, Lloyd could see what was going on under that silver blue light. The first time he'd almost got sick, heck Raine had almost got sick and she had to leave, but a few times later now that Kratos was quietly explaining what was happening it wasn't so bad. Or rather it was enough to keep Lloyd from losing control over his guts as he watched his vains and muscles writhe while the mercenary coaxed then to work faster in sending something called 'nutrients' to another thing called 'cells' so that his body would hurry up and put itself together. The worst part was the skin, it would twist all around the wound then slowly knit together and cover each gash. At least with Kratos' technique he didn't have any scars, Raine's left his arms covered in a mess of small white lines. Since they were so on hand he asked them how it worked, how magic made someone heal, there responses had been different but equally confusing.

"What?" He looked at them wondering if there healings had turned off his mind.

"Using the mana I gather from the local environ I..." Kratos began again.

"Simple words Mr. Aurion," Raine sighed. "Why do you ask when you know you wont understand? Alright, what I do is bring the mana from around me and from myself into my hand, I then tell it to warm the area I'm healing so it wont hurt then use the rest to kind of... Inside your mind is the knowledge of how it works and how it's put together, I give your body the energy it needs to follow those instructions at a faster rate then it normally would."

"So you speed heal?" Kratos' voice had just a touch of scorn. "You accelerate the natural healing process and therefore age him everytime you do so."

"Only a few days at worse." Raine countered, the hostility between the two adults made Lloyd squirm and they put on there masks of tolerence for each other for his sake.

"I spoke too harshly, not everyone favors my method of healing and I should not criticize you on yours."

"Thank you Mr. Aurion, after all it's only a matter of style, we shouldn't quibble over it."

"Indeed... My technique is different. As Ms. Sage explained there is a part of your mind that is aware of everything you expereince, you only precieve..." Lloyd's eyes were begining to glaze and Kratos sighed. "You only understand so much so it only lets you see so much. I go to that part and see the things that are around the injury, I don't know the names or what's needed for the body to heal on my own, but that part of your mind does so I go to the parts of your body that have those substances your mind tells me they do and use my mana to... take what's needed and bring it to the wound."

"By using controled biodegeneration, by completly manipulting the boy's biology you heal him!" Raine hissed through her teeth. "And you criticise me for-!"

"I take from various places, not enough to put him in danger and what I feel uncomfortable taking I subsitute with my own mana." Kratos said cooly. "I put him in no danger with the tactic."

"Oh so playing with his subconcious is no danger, you could be doing irrufutable harm!"

"I'm never asking about mana again..." Lloyd grumbled, closing his eyes. "Look guys I'm getting a headache.. could you let me nap for a bit?"

"Of course." Raine stood, absently reached out and touched Lloyd's brow to check for a fevor. "It's a wonder you don't have spliting headaches all the time." She growled, as if his headache was Kratos' fault, it was there talking of mana and theroies, and bio what'cha'ma call it's that was giving him a headache. "Is the pain keeping you up, I can numb it if you'd like."

"Nah, I'll fall asleep on my own."

"Rest well dear." She kissed him on his brow and Lloyd blushed, Raine only was affectionate when she was worried to death over someone, at least if you were the patient, if you weren't the patient she'd bit your head off for breathing wrong.

"Thanks Professor, g'night."

"I shouldn't of asked." Lloyd said in an appologetic tone. "Now she's gunna bite your head off for something that she doesn't like."

"She's been looking for the excuse to do so all day, don't worry about it." Kratos looked at Lloyd for a long moment. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Lloyd shrugged with one shoulder, until the adults figured out who was going to patch it they left it bandaged up with a coating of red jell on the inside. "Saving me? Don't worry about it, people like to do it sometimes and I normally wound up getting cut like this during, nothing new."

"Almost bleeding to death isn't new?"

"Nah doing stupid things isn't new." Still Kratos looked guilty. "Come on Kratos you met me when I was fighting that huge guy in Iselia, if that wasn't a hint that I get my butt kciked when I pick fights against people twice my size then the bone thing in Ossa and that fire thing at the temple were even more hints."

Kratos didn't quite crack a smile, but there was a hint of one in his eyes.

"Mr. Aurion a word with you..." Riane's voice drifted from the hall like the voice of doom.

"So you cleared where you wanna be buried with Genis right?"

Kratos snorted, rolled his shoulders like he did from time to time when he got in a fight, then stepped out into the hall. And thought they tried to be quiet and not yell Lloyd could hear every word. He frowned in the gathering gloom, they were going to be gone in a day or two and they couldn't leave PalmaCosta like this, him hurt and everyone at everyone elses throat. But what the heck could he do?

xxx xxx xxx

The table was long, two tables put end to end actually, and it was like that for a reason. If a real fight started people woudl have time to get away from each other and run, and considering how on edge everyone was that wasn't bad thinking. No one would have guessed it was Colette who'd suggested it, or even Colette who'd pushed him into doing this. 'If we all talke like we do during Autn at Dirk's and we fix everyting there maybe doing it here we can fix what's wrong now.' Colette was really cool like that, but what wasn't cool was when he followed her idea on having a 'mod-er-a-ter' a person who was supposed to be nutral and fair that they'd picked him. He'd gone to everyone, and asked who they thought was the most nutral, the most open if there was a fight between two people in the group who would they go to? Every single one of them had picked him. Even Noishe had picked him, or rather the red ribbon that represended him. Thinking of Noishe he was slowly scooting farther away from Colette and closer to Kratos, Lloyd met Noishe's eyes and gave a passable death glare and the dog lay his head on the table and made his eyes twice there size.

From left to right on the half of the long table that was opposite of him it was Kratos, Noishe, -who he gave a sharp gesture to with his good hand and the dog went back to his spot between the two- and Colette. On his end going the same way was Genis, himself, and Raine. He'd deliberatly put Genis out of sight from Raine and vica versa and put Kratos and Raine as far from each other as he could, putting Noishe in front of him though was proving to be a mistake. Noishe first acted all petted deprived, then wanted food, then made faces everytime Lloyd tried to talk. Noishe was driving him nuts, but despite Raine and Genis' protests Noishe had a place here too. Unlike Dad's table in Iselia there wasn't a lot of talking, but then there were some people -OK person- that weren't liked. Tension was high and it made him sweaty and that dripped into his still untreated shoulder and made it hurt all the more.

"Why are we here again?" Kratos was mad at him, he had wanted to go out today and look for traces of the false Chosen group and this meeting was keeping him inside.

"It's a meeting, like for the club, but since it's serious everyone has to attend." Colette said and Kratos looked over Noishe to stare at her. They could almost hear his thoughts that it must be serious if Colette was seeing something wrong.

"Not serious enough to have you up and about young man!" Raine growled, giving him a firece look, or rather his shoulder bandage that was seeping red.

"It's OK Professor Sage..." he hissed in pain despite himself. "I'm fine... really."

"Un huh, why don't we believe that?" Genis snapped, he was not enjoying having to sit across from Kratos, he had wanted to sit by Raine but Lloyd had been his usual stubborn self and Genis had given in. "You're as pale as a sheet, you should be sleeping!"

"I'm fine, really..." Lloyd traced one of the buttons on his shirt.

"You should let me heal it..." Kratos began.

"Oh no! No Mr. Aurion if you have such little reguard for Lloyd's saftey as to use a highly unorthadox healing method such as you described then..."

"Well be talking about that later!" Lloyd barked, feeling strange having to cut them off. Now they were all staring him, Raine, Kratos, Colette, Genis, even Noishe were looking at him like he was acting wierd. But then he'd never yelled at anyone before, he'd never had to. Raine normally never did anything bad, he never was in a position where he knew more then she did so he just kept his mouth shut and his nose out of adult things. He felt sick with all there eyes on him, wanted to suddenly leave and let them fight and argue, but he couldn't, it wouldn't be right...

"It sounds as if you have this planned Lloyd." Kratos said, crossing his arms in front of his chest, at the gesture Lloyd's stomach sunk into his shoes, he knew that look, he was going to have trouble from the mercenary.

"I might," Lloyd took a deep breath, told his stupid wound to hurt some other time. "I'm sick of everyone fighting." That seemed a safe place to start, they all shook there heads ready to deny. "Everyone is fighting, You and Raine," He looked at the mercenary then let his gaze go to his elf friend. "Genis and Kratos you haven't been fighting but it's almost as bad. heck I've been fighting with almost everyone, so we need to do something about this."

"There's one solution, get rid of the main problem."

"Ouch Professor you want me and Noishe to leave already?" Lloyd said before Kratos could probably explode and say something even nastyer.

"Don't be rediculious-"

"Then stop being it first." Lloyd siad in a tired voice. "This is part of the problem, You and Genis have a problem with Kratos."

"We all do!" Genis protested, then seeing Colette wouldn't meet his eyes frowned. Colette cringed as she was given death glares by her elven friends.

"OK stop it both of you, Colette's got every right to think what she wants so stop telling ehr she doesn't!"

"We weren't saying anything!" Genis protested, giving him the dirty look now.

"You don't have to." Kratos snapped, taking Lloyd's side for a minuete. "You're practically glaring her to death."

"Yeah I guess that would be what you do to people huh?" Genis snapped.

"What did you say _runt_?"

"If size were reflected in kindness you'd be the size of an ant!" Genis growled back, though he was shaking in fear of the man.

"Genis, Kratos, shut it!" Lloyd barked.

"You have no right to adress me like that young man-"

"How dare you talk to my brother like that, Genis let's..."

Oh great things were going nuts already.

"We'll have a vote, we'll have a damn vote right here right now to decide if Kratos stays or not!" Lloyd gaspped in pain as someone bumped the table and it hit his arm.

"How's this going to work?" Riane asked, calm once again at his logic, though she had not returned to her seat.

"Kratos and me can't vote, everyone else can, if he leaves Ryou can write Phardia telling him how far he got with us and Phardia can figure what to pay him." Lloyd rubbed his bad arm with his good.

"How do you know that I control his pay Lloyd?"

"I was there when you yelled at him in Triet." Raine's eyes nerrows and she turned to Genis. "Before you guys started fighting I sent him back to the hotel, he didn't hear a word."

He could feel Raine's glare pierce through him and Genis' silent gratitude, he'd lied to protect Genis from a Raine'ing while all but signing up for one once he was healed. Kratos showed no sign of being aware of the lie, he was so still he looked like a statue, but then considering his pay was on hinge by a vote of people who didn't like him...

"Fine," Raine sat, and Lloyd told his heart it could beat again.

"You say yes or no when your name's called and say why. Raine..."

"No, he's dangerous, he's hurt Genis already with a instinctual reaction that he shows no sign of control over, who's to know who he'll hurt or even kill next."

"Genis..."

"No, he hurt me, and he might hurt Colette, and his threads were..." Genis shivered. "Ivan didn't even scare me this much Lloyd."

"Colette..."

"What do you think Lloyd?" She whispered, staring at the table.

"It doesn't matter Colette," Lloyd closed his eyes, thinking fondly of sleep. "I can't say anything until everyone else's voted, it's your call."

She frowned and looked confused, but then it was the first time in Lloyd's knowledge anyone ever let her make her own decision. When Raine moved to say something Lloyd kicked her chair, and the look she cast him promised a very firm lecture later. He ignroed it, ran a hand over the slips of ribbon that would let the last person vote if she went the way he though she was going to.

"Yes, I want him to stay." Both the elf sibs and Kratos stared at her in surprise, Noishe only barked and his tail slapped a wild tune against the wooden floor. "He's really nice, and smart, and good with swords, and knows a lot about where we're going, so I think he should stay."

"Nice?" Genis strangled.

That was a word even Lloyd would have trouble pinning to Kratos.

"Well he paid for your lunch, and went to the school with us, and kept us safe even when he wasn't getting paid in Iselia, and he rescued Lloyd, and..."

"Chosen, enough." Was Kratos blushing, it looked like it?

"Still even though Colette wants him to stay it's still two to one."

Seeing Lloyd's look at Noishe Genis groaned. "No way, a dog Lloyd!"

"Noishe isn't a dog... well he's kinda a dog you know but kinda not. And so no one thinks I'm cheating you and Raine can hold the yes or no slips. Raine'll be yes and Genis no."

"Fine," Raine agreed, thinking that Noishe who liked Genis would go to him by instinct. Lloyd tried not to laugh when Noishe all but sat on Raine's toes to indicate his decision. "This is illogical trusting an animal to make a decision."

"You want me to vote?" Lloyd said at last when no one could be persuaded to change there vote. They nodded and Lloyd closed his eyes. His words were going to spark a few more fights and the meeting had a long way to go before it was done. Giving himself a mental shake he sat up and looked to each of his friends, old and new.

"Yes, I want him to stay, not just because I like him but because he is as Colette said, he's smart, he knows what he's doing, and I mean come on Professor between you and me we'd be lost for twenty years out in who knows where. I know he can be dangerous, but so's everyone else with a sword." At that he saw Lych and Ivan in his mind but shoved those two ghosts back. "Not every swordsman's a good person and so far Kratos has shown himself to be good, not just in skill but in taking care of us. How many times could he have just walked away and let any or all of us get hurt Professor. His 'job' is to protect Colette, and that's all he has to do, but he protects all of us, and that counts for something."

There was a long silence, again with the staring, Lloyd squirmed in discomfort at all those eyes.

"But then I'm this moderator right now so my vote doesn't count, you have to change someone's mind and that's part of what we're here for."

Raine nodded and turned to Colette and a more controlled arguement occured, seeing it was safe to do so Lloyd closed his eyes for just a second and quite un-intentionally took a nap.

xxx xxx xxx

Kratos listened to them argue, keeping his peace, only speaking when something was so outragious in it's error that he felt his voice was needed. Things were more controled now, tensions and angers were slowly draining out, and he marveled a bit at Lloyd's intellegence. This was a perfect way to tend to such problems, a cleaner way then the endless snipping he was prepared to endure for the rest of the journey. As Genis seemed to be mulling over something that Kratos had siad in his own defense the mercenary looked to see if Lloyd was seeing how well his plan was unfolding. It would be the perfect opratunity to watch for improvements or to see upcomming problems. He winced as he saw the young man's eyes closed head lolled back against the back of his chair. His observation skills must be slipping if he had missed that Lloyd's breathing was that shallow and slow. He caught Raine's eye and jerked his head at Lloyd, the way she started told him he was not alone in his mental self flagulation.

For the adults of this group they were doing a poor job of doing there jobs, and the child who had taken pains to remind them was now sleeping off the pain of his wound.

"Vote," Kratos said, more to cut off the chatter then check the waters and see if he was still employed. "We have other matters to discuss and I believe that we don't need a nanny to supervise hmmm?"

The children noticed Lloyd's state and they too flinched in shame.

"Ms. Sage..."

"I will change my vote on two requirements." Kratos turned, gave her a long brooding look and that seemed enough for her. "First I want you to keep away from Genis, as much as you can."

"Agreed." Nothing would suit him better, but he kept that to himself.

"Second, I want to know the truth about you Kratos, and I think Lloyd deserves it as well since you are both so... close."

"What truth?"

"Who are you Kratos Aurion?"

"Well," He chuckled, "A comprimise if you would, I'll tell him and he can tell you what he wills." Raine said nothing, stared at him, and at her protest that it was also her buisness as well as Lloyd's Kratos snorted. "Do you give a swords to your foe Ms. Sage and bow low so they get first strike? It's a highly improbable move, and while I like the boy and the Chosen I have no like of you."

"I acknowledge that, and also convey the same feelings towards you."

"Then we understand each other and that will be enough for this journey."

"Mr. Kratos..." Colette looked pained, but he was not going to take back what he just siad if that was the issue. "When Lloyd wakes up cna you give him five of my gald."

Genis asked Raine to do the same thing and both adults gave the gald and then the child who had given it to them a long look.

"What's this for Genis?"

"Nothing important, just a game I'm glad I lost."

The Chosen only smiled and called to Noishe, who now no longer bieng riened in by Lloyd set his head on the mercenary's lap.

xxx xxx xxx

Tylor came the morning of the last day, he spent that time telling Colette stories of his younger days on a pilgrimige and was pleased to have heard Genis' sucsess at the academy. He certainly patted the elf's back and challenged him to a game of riddles. A mistake on Tylor's part as he lost thirty gald when he made a bet that his last riddle would keep Genis busy for a day. Raine scolded priest and child for gambling, and with a good natured Raine shooing him out. Then came classes, from noon to three hours after. Head still ringing from all the drilling he was getting Lloyd challenged Colette to hop skip and lost every game. Genis moved to take his place, and then pleading sleepiness Colette went to her rooms. It was a few hours until sunset, and there was nothing to do. Raine and Genis were quietly studying by the fire, Colette sleeping, as was Noishe who seemed content to be Genis' foot stool for a time. It was nice, this piece of normalicy, it was almost like Iselia, and that sliver of home was very nice. Funny really, he had always wanted to go on an adventure and he was thinking and enjoying every reminder of home he got.

Another page turned, and the fire crackled. All seemed still, and when the sun set the mythical tower of mana to look like a tourch in some hours to come Lloyd would leave them and Noishe would join him. They would, for a short time, lay side by side on the roof of the inn and stare at the stars. But till then to now was a... transitional span... that's what Raine called it. A moment before something else happened. For Lloyd who spent all of his moments doing something it was kind of boring waiting for the time between them to pass. Yet it was fitting to, because he knew that so long as something hadn't come up that lazy time between important time would be filled. There was a knock on the door frame and they all looked up.

Kratos ignored the glare of anger, the faint hint of disapointment. Raine was hoping and had kept saying Kratos would not come, that he would be late or found something else 'more important' to attend to. Genis cringed in his sister's arms just a bit, then relaxed, but the initial fear made Raine draw an arm around her brother and in the arms of her anger rested his fear. Kratos did not respond, did not care for them, merely lay the blades he had carried from his room against the door frame. Both steel hilts flickured like gold rimmed stars in the sunlight and Lloyd met Kratos' eyes.

And he smiled.

He knew of Genis' threads and Riane's fears, he knew there persuasion and caution. But he knew something else. Raine and Genis were still a part of Iselia, just like he was, they loved that old town and knew in the end when it was all over they could just go back. But not Lloyd, he would never go back, not to the place that had allowed the Desian's to do as they pleased. Even when the Desian's were all gone, like they would be at the end of this journey, he could not go back. There were unclosing eyes that haunted his dreams, in the red rain there were unblinking unclosing eyes that he would forever face. He could not go to a place where everyone else would not look at those who could not look back.

So he had to let go. He loved Iselia, it's where he had grown up, and he really did love it. He knew every path every inch of the place, it was his childhood home. It was his childhood home, nothing more. He stood, having chosen Raine to fix his shoulder earlier much to Kratos' disapointment, he had a pale spot the length of his thumb, but it was better then a red one. To him Kratos was change, he wasn't from Iselia -which is why Genis and Raine really disliked him- he didn't know all the sayings and stuff but he had a few of his own.

Walking over Lloyd picked up his swords, pulled one out of it's sheath and shot the man a warm smile. So he had sharpened them, not that Lloyd wasn't well enough to do it himself, but Kratos seemed to like to do nice stuff for him nowadays.

"Be careful Lloyd." Raine said as she watched him go.

"Yeah Professor, I'll avoid wolves and monsters and all the fun... I mean dangerous stuff."

"Will you ever grow up!" She sighed.

"Nah, I'll stay a kid forever, just to drive you..."

Raine pulled the erasser out and Lloyd chuckled and tried to make a run for it, no such luck, she'd been nailing him for ages and a little thing like running wasn't going to be an issue. Laughing, he pulled the erasser out of his hair, whiped away the chalk and then set the erasser by the door behind a vase. She knew where to find it, having pelted him several times today for old times sake when he dozed during a lecture and he'd scamper off to hide it.

"So training, food, or food?" Lloyd asked as they went outside, brushing the last of his play from his hair. "We could always shop for you know... food if that's not a problem."

Kratos rolled his eyes but a small curl of his lips told Lloyd he was still in the mercenary's good graces.

"I thought you wanted to see it."

"See what?"

Kratos gave him a long long look and Lloyd tried to remember and gave up with a sigh that the black clad mercenary echoed.

"Come on, we'll eat later."

"Oh come on, cafe... sandwiches!"

"I am not particularly hungry at the moment, and we will be sparing after."

"Really?"

"If you are up to it, then yes."

They went down a weapons shop street and paused. Kratos turned then slipped between two abandoned stalls to come into an alley. Blinking, for the alley seemed a nest of darkness after a path of sunlight Lloyd gripped one of the shoulder pads of Kratos' cape and he could feel Kratos surpress his darker instincts. Lloyd was not scolded however and since Kratos could still see, or perhaps knew the route so well sight was unnessicary, they went forward. From the alley they squirmed between a tight man sized space between two houses and came to a small little street. There were houses, a row of five houses long since abandoned, and it seemed wierd as if was the shops and merchant's stalls had been built to hide the place. It seemed as if the single story houses had once belonged to a poorer district, but as if someone had wanted to hide the buildings, to lock them away. it seemed rather sad, they were nice looking, if you ignored the pealing paint and tried to imagine them new. To his shock Kratos calmly walked up to the fourth house, his manner of someone comming home. He pulled open the small waist high gate and turned to Lloyd.

"Comming?"

"Kratos what if someone lives here?"

"All the other previous residents have abandoned this lot," The mercenary held something small and metalic in his hand. "And the owner of this house has just returned."

Spreading his fingers a length of chain fell from his hands and on the end was a key. Feeling like a idiot Lloyd flushed, and rubbed the back of his neck.

"So you lived here?" Lloyd closed the gate behind him.

"Over ten years ago." Kratos smiled slightly, and after working the key, pushed open the door. "Gods it's good to see it again. Despite how Dorr and everyone else wishes to hide it from me. Take a look around, it's not much but it was... is my home."

Lloyd did as offered. He walked slowly through the kitchen, two buckets one cracked and brittle the other still usable stood filled with dust rather then water. Plates stood in small cabnits, the last meal that rested on them was fadded into perhaps only one man's mind. Running a hand over the simple cabnit that had been nailed into the wall he smiled, brushed off the dust.

"Your work? If so it's very good, if not tell me who did it and I'll need to apprentice to them."

Kratos' quiet chuckle drifted amongst the dust like a content ghost, but he did not answer. Picking his way across the floor boards, not caring that everything was sheathed in dust, Lloyd walked to the small kitchen table and spent a moment admiring the simple if sturdy wood work. He blinked, stared at the chairs around it, there were two clearly for adults... and one for a child. A very small child.

The implications hung over him, but he did not understand them, so he let it go. Time would tell him what he needed to know. He picked his way across a living room, little more then a slight dent in the hallway, a very small book shelf with one or two books inside had stood there, save the books had been ripped down and there pages ripped out. Half molded and decayed there was no way to salvage what little was left. Something had happened here, something aweful, it seemed as if the whole house sighed with gentle regret and echoed with found memories. He wandered down the hall and half way in he stopped, one of the walls had been destroyed, torn down and though a curtain of spider web hung over it he could glipse a hint of green on the other side. Despite himself he gripped the hilt of his blade, tried to room to the right. The door came open at his touch, inside was a small crib meant for the youngest of children. That was the rooms sole furniture, there was a rug under the craddle, a pool of pale green, and a pile of what might have been folded clothes. Not having the heart to look thorugh that pile he left it to it's blanket of dust and tried the door to the left. Remains of a bed, brown spots in the matress' blankets told a story that the wall confirmed. It was as bare as the child's room, the covers stirred like ghosts as a wind from an open door came in. It carried the scent of the sea and the sweet caress of flowers. Blinking, suddenly eager to leave and see outside he went to the door and opened it all the way. Sitting on a bench, rolling a flower, a rose of white over in his hands, was Kratos, as he stared out at the sea. The view, despite the buildings that crouded around them was magnificent. A plane of blue green tinged with threads of gold, serounded by the peering heads of other buildings, it was like looking over a group of people and seeing an treasure.

"She used to tell me we'd move out any day now, but I honestly think that she didn't mean it. She was so litteral though, saying what she ment it was hard to be sure. The rose bush that's taken half the wall by you, her work... I guess her trout idea worked."

"How long did you live here?"

"A year, with my wife, and our child. He died when he was very young, as did she. Niether of them diserved what happened to them. I was gone for a day doing some work around town and I had a bad feeling so I came home early..." Kratos gently set aside the plant. "She asked me to give this up, to give up wandering and living by the blade for her, for our child, and I did. My reflexes were slow, I had fallen out of my prime and if only I had been a little faster... Despite that, despite the Hell that happened here there is enough good, enough light to draw me back, I've avoided this place for so long and when I come here I always wonder why."

Lloyd only gripped Kratos' shoulder, understanding perhaps in a way no one else could.

"Thank you." Was all Lloyd said, it seemed enough for Kratos smiled a sad distant smile.

"Despite Mr. Sage's thoughts I don't bite."

Lloyd smiled, took the seat offered and for a time the looked out at the sea. Lloyd's mind swum. Kratos a father, married even, he'd never had guessed or believed.

"What was it like..." He muttered, feeling something twist inside of him, some old pain. "Being a father."

"Though I only was one for less then a handful of years." The mercenary whispered, eyes seeing something far away. "In the long eternity that will serve as my life I would trade nothing for it, no riches or gold could tempt me to forsake those memories, for I charish nothing else but that time."

"You don't have eternity," Lloyd teased. "You're an old man."

Kratos chuckled. "Fair enough, yes I guess at twenty eight I must now make use of a cane when beating you into the ground for over thrusting or preforming the wrong counter."

"Please, don't rub it in."

"I appologize..." Kratos' eyes told him that appologie was totally false. "What is it like... being a son to a dwarf?"

"Not as wierd as I bet your son had it. I could so hear you over dinner telling your kid not to stick the fork into the carrot like that, the grips' wrong."

"Actually, I would have encouraged my son to seek a different career, I never wanted him to be a swordsman, it was practical of course after all my blade is my dominent skill, but everytime I could see him rushing into danger in my mind my blood would go like ice."

"I wonder... if my Dad felt the same when I wanted to be a swordsman."

"You stopped wanting that?"

"I, and don't tell anyone else I said this, was out stubborned. Dad taught me to be a craftsman, keep me so busy I wouldn't have time to learn the sword, not that I'd try but after almost cutting off my ears Dad relented a little and gave me some lessons. By then I was too old to pick it up so I let it go and stuck with craftswork. Anyways I told you what it was like at that College place."

"Were you happy?" Lloyd froze, hesitate, the old answer of 'yeah of course I was' filled him. But that hesitance said more then any words to a man who's language was half silence and thought. "The truth Lloyd, you can tell me that after I have told you mine, can't you?"

Flushing in shame Lloyd looked to the sea, beter then those eyes that read every thought in his head.

"Sometimes I missed my human parents and when I'd look no one would help me. No one would listen when I asked if they had seen my parents, they'd all smile and nod and look at me in pity. I love my Dad, my dwarf Dad, but I miss my human parents too. Mom's dead... Dad knew that for sure and told me when I was little, but my human Dad might be alive. And I _hate_ that word, 'might' becuase... I can't know for sure, and I hate not knowing, it makes it feel wrong."

"Not knowing is not a crime." Kratos said softly, and at his words Lloyd turned to stare at him. "Lloyd, I can not give you your answers, and the odds may be that you never will get them, but not having them is not a crime, it's complacency in ignorance is the crime."

Blinking sharply Lloyd ordered the stinging to go away in his eyes, and managed to shove it down inside with some effort.

"Yeah, I guess you're right... Hey, do you like boats?"

"As long as they aren't fishing boats then the answer is yes." Kratos made a noise in his throat. "I spent my youth undernieth far too many of those to last a life time."

"When... when this is all done I think I'll make a boat and just sail somewhere, no idea where yet, but I figure you can make up your own way when you travel you know?"

"That sounds like a good plan."

"Well I can't sail or anything so it's not all that great, but even if it doesn't work and I can't do that maybe I'll just travel and see what's over the next hill without all these seals and stuff messing things up."

"A better plan."

"Would you, I don't know, want to come?"

"Come?"

"For a little while, just for the heck of it, no mercenary junk involved, just to go somewhere for the heck of it."

Kratos smiled, a small guarded smile that warmed his eyes and spred just a litte wider then it's norm.

"I might like that."

"You don't snore do you?"

"No." Kratos snorted, sounded a touch insulted.

"Good, then we'e all set, we'll wrap up those seal things and chuck the map and go where ever." Lloyd offered the man his hand and Kratos stared at it a long time. "So deal?"

"It's a deal." Kratos took it and gave a firm shake.

"Good about that cafe."

"Not until after your appointment with my cane... I mean sword outside of town young man."

"You're no fun." Lloyd whined, and was totally surprised when Kratos laughed a warm full throated laugh.

"I've never claimed to be fun." He crossed his arms in front of him, and gave a decent mock glare.

"Yeah well..." Lloyd thought fast, crossed his arms and gave a very poor mock glare. "Well you'll just have to learn wont you?"

"If you can pick up the remnants of swords craft I'll work on trying to be 'fun' how is that for a deal?"

"Best one I've had for a while." Lloyd said with a grin.

xxx xxx xxx

Tail thumping a wild beat and in all probability annoying who ever owned the room below him, Noishe didn't care. He was getting his spot rubbed, his greem patch, and had spread himself out, legs all going in different directions. Making a little gaspy of pleasure Noishe rolled over with a quiet howl and looked at Lloyd with his puppy eye look. Grinning Lloyd ran his fingers through the thick main of silver and green and the purring started. One long arm snagged him around his shoulders, pulled him down and he plopped against that huge furry chest. Then perhaps, thinking on all the childish romp where Lloyd had pulled him into this position the dog worked a paw back and forth over Lloyd's hair and gave him a noogie. The young man mock growled and shook off the paws. He half tackled, half shoved his dog and they slid on the slick roof tiles. Gripping her staff in terror Raine was about to rush out, to open the window she stood behind and try to save them. Noishe caught himself by digging his claws in between the shingles and Lloyd laughing, caughed himself with an ease that showed that he had slid for the fun of it. He picked his way back up to the window that they'd used to climb out, and Noishe on shaking paws joined him.

"Fraidy cat, I can't believe you're scared of hieghts."

"Whine whiiine bark!"

"Weirdo."

"Whiiine..." The ears dropped and the tail stoped wagging, it started wagging when Lloyd foundly ruffled the fur.

"Half cat!" Lloyd teased, and was firmly swatted on the head. "You so are a half cat, half fraidy cat!"

"Howl!" Noishe pounced and they slid down, this time Lloyd's head hung over the side of the roof and he began to go over. She had the window almost all the way open, and was about to squirm her way out, to do what she didn't know. Noishe dipped his head, snagged the boy's twin belt and dropped him back onto the roof. She was half in half out and aware that from Lloyd's room a figure in black was doing much the same, but they both froze seeing that Lloyd was alright, she came to herself first.

"Lloyd, I think that's enough stargazing for the evening."

"But the stars just came out Professor!"

"For the sake of my nerves come back in boy." Kratos barked, his knuckles were pale from gripping the window frame so tight.

"Lloyd don't argue with me, come in right now!"

"Yes Professor..." Lloyd hung his head, "We'll be in in a sec."

Satisfied that Lloyd would do as ordered Kratos ducked back inside, Raine however knew beter then to trust that tone. Lloyd made a show of going to the window that he had crawled out of that lay between Kratos and Raine's windows, then secure that none of the adults were watching opened the window and sat on the frame. Noishe, despite the slant of the roof, laid at Lloyd's feet to admire the sky. She allowed them to watch the silver dawns that drove off yet inhanced the onyx sky, she gave them all of a minuete to savor the sight.

"Lloyd Irving we did not mean half in half out, we ment all the way in, now come inside!"

Kratos' window that had been left open a crack opened all the way and a very annoyed head poped out.

"If you aren't inside this room in ten seconds young man..."

"You know my Dirk, my Dad, doesn't care when I stargaze on the roof with Noishe!" Lloyd growled.

"Well I'm not Dirk, now get inside!"

"Fine fine... sheesh." Lloyd stepped aside and Noishe hopped through the open window, Lloyd followed and went back to his shared room. The mercenary was not good company for the rest of the night, as a matter of fact he was snippy company.

Lloyd lay on his back staring at the roof, tossing a block of wood he had yet to work into a project. He threw it into the air and caught it, then rolled over with it still in his hands, Kratos in all appearences was sleeping. But then Lloyd had tried to sneak out the window to go back to star gazing and those closed eyes had slid open. The man hadn't even said anything, Lloyd slinked back to his blankets under that expressive glare. He rolled over, aware of those eyes boring into him. He tossed the block in the air, caught it in one hand. He tried to juggle it in the dark, and as to be expected miscalculated a catch and it bonked off of his hand to skitter in the middle of the floor, right between him and Kratos' bed. He was going to go for it when a flash of silver snapped across the room, smacked into the block and set it to skittering farther off in the gloom. Lloyd whistled, surprised at how hard Kratos had thrown that pice of gald.

"Go to bed, stop playing and get some sleep, we start early tomorrow."

Frowning, unable to quite pick out the small block, he fumbled in the dark and brough up his swords. Following the belt in his hand he fished out his gald pouch and found a celin piece, a gald coin worth two coins. He threw and hitting the edge of the block made it spin into a pool of moonlight.

"What in Efreet's fiery Hell are you doing?"

Lloyd fished another celin out and threw, the block slid in Kratos' direction, unable to turn down the opratunity he missed, lightly pelting the man with a coin.

"Woops, so sorry..."

Kratos picked up the block and threw, Lloyd managed to make a pillow a shield and catch the projectile. Feet tromped to there room and Raine opened the door.

"What's going on, I thought I heard something?"

"Nothing professor... just dropped my umm project." Lloyd showed off the piece of wood.

"I'm studying and I'm in the room next door, I expect no distractions." She gave Lloyd a look that he knew all too well.

"Gotcha." He tucked the block under his pillow and closed his eyes, the second the door slid shut he lay the wood on the floor. He pulled out another coin and tossed it on the block, another smashed into the back and set pice of gald and block to the mercenaries bed. "The trick," He told the confused man. "Is to keep the piece of gald on the block but make them both move. If it falls off you lose."

"I am not playing a child's game."

"You said if I learned the rem.. ren.. Sword stuff you'd let me teach you to have fun, well this is my first lesson." Lloyd gave a poor mimic of Kratos' tutoring glare then let that disolve into a pout. "You promised!"

"I did didn't I." Kratos looked... well pained. Pained as if he were eating something bitter and his stomach didn't like it.

Lloyd knew that look, his dad, Dirk had worn it a lot when Lloyd would play. Dad had forgotten how to have fun and Kratos seemed to be the same way. He recalled with startling clarity the sheer amount of nagging it had taken Lloyd to get his Dad to play tag, and catch, and walk around with him when he looked for fish and other weird things. Dirk would always look back at the smithy, or in the direction of the house, at least for the first bit, then after much nagging and coaxing he'd play along with Lloyd's childish games. But always with hesitence. It wasn't a dwarf thing to play, it was a human thing, dwarves did not play,were very serious minded folk who would focus on the task before them and when it was done indulge in a big meal before going to the next one. Lloyd could not be like that, though he always was busy the hours after dark when Dad would sleep had always been his to just... be a little kid for just a bit, for as long as he could fight off sleep. And traveling with Colette wasn't going to change that one bit, he'd fight mosnters and Desians and look for seals in the day, but a few hours at night before sleep, they would be his. Raine could tie him to Kratos or to herself and hope that the seriousness would rub off, could bunk him with anyone and he'd still be up at night doing what he liked best. That, was why he wasn't with Genis or Colette, he'd get them to play along, get them to join in, and he'd just drive Raine nuts, so he was with Kratos when they went to inns.

Maybe Kratos was hoping the seriousness would rub off too.

Whatever, he threw the next gald piece and hit the block which spun and the coin on top almost fell.

Wincing Lloyd closed his eyes, and held his breath. There was a 'tink' and the block skid across the floor. Cracking an eye open he saw the block slide more to his side. Lloyd's counter throw missed and smacked into the ground and wall. Kratos rolled over, closed his eyes and his breathing slowed, either the guy had fallen asleep in a second or... Feet stomped agianst the wooden hall.

"You jerk, you're playing possim!" He hissed, then pulled the covers over his head and closed his eyes.

Raine opened the door, her staff tapped in her hands, an ominous sound and he went still as he could while she walked into the room and glared at them both. With a muttered word in the elf language she closed the door behind her.

"Is it safe?" Lloyd whispered, not daring to open his eyes.

"I believe so." Lloyd heard Kratos roll over so he pulled the covers off of his head. "Close, no?"

"That's part of the fun." Lloyd grinned.

"Hurmph, _goodnight_ Lloyd." Kratos rolled over and pulled his blanket over his shoulders. Even when he was sleeping he wore that black tunic and pants, on one of the chairs obscured by the dark was a simular hued cloak. Lloyd watched the man curl up around nothing in particular and gradually watched the man's breathing slow to that common to someone asleep.

Seeing this as his chance Lloyd swung his feet over the side of the bed, plans of slipping out the window for a few hours stargazing dancing in his head.

And were just as swiftly dashed when Kratos twitched ever so slightly then rolled over so he was facing the window.

Slipping under the covers without a squeak of protest Lloyd waited and Kratos seemed to go back to sleep. He fingered his greatly diminished gald pouch and considered the block.

"If you try the next thing I throw will be my dagger, and it wont be at the block."

"Sheesh, you're pretty grouchy without sleep you know that?"

"Others have siad that before, it hardly hurts me now, go to _sleep_ Lloyd."

"I'm still wide awake." Lloyd growled.

"Then stop drinking coffee at dinner."

"You're up, what's up with that?"

"You're keeping me up!"

"Well.."

The door slammed open and Raine decended bloody murder writen on her face. Lloyd fell on a trick Genis had taught him long ago.

"Raine, Kratos wont shut up about swrods practice!" He put just a hint of whine and innocence in it and the professor turned on the mercenary.

"Sith jasun ust Lloyden." Kratos growled, his eyes blazing.

xxx xxx

"Well we both got in trouble if it makes you feel better." Lloyd offered meekly, hiding as best he could behind the lump that had taken the whole blanket.

"No it does not," Kratos tugged on the lump, which growled and smacked him with a paw. "Damn it Noishe, share!"

"Growl!"

"Don't you dare growl at me!"

"Yip!" Noishe whirled on Llyod who had slipped his cold hands under his belly and smacked his master on the head. Kratos snatched the only blanket for himself. He didn't have it for long, Noishe nipped the man and took the blanket and threw it over himself. Lloyd swipped the blanket and drapped it over both of them. They'd been banned from the inn, and having no where else to go had slept in the stables. Spotting the blanket and his master Noishe had picked the lock on his stall and padded up to them and taken the best for himself. Still not satisfied Noishe gave Kratos a strange look, and Lloyd chuckled.

"Don't that's beyond evil!"

"Bark!" Noishe stood, walked up to Kratos and firmly laied down, the mercenary squirmed and fought and while Lloyd was incapitated by his laughter the... dog wheeled him in and used him as a pillow for his head.

"Noishe, let me get up... this isn't funny anymore!"

Noishe, comfortable under his human pillows, thumped his tail agianst Kratos' leg and with a yawn fell asleep.


	13. Paths of many and light

(First attempt at lengthy travel-lengthy travel equal lengthy chapter you have been warned-... hope it works out well, if you pay very close attention to when you walk around Sylvarant you should be able to trace the path of the characters in my fic. If the style goes over well then I'll continue with it, if not then I'll use the old David Edding's travel tactic -skip travleing and only focus on the main events in a town unless combat's involved-)

AN: Seven days equal a holy span, a holy span is not a week -that's important there is a difference i'll explain it if I ever find a way to do so in the fic-... just so you understand Kratos later on... Oh and the grass coment... that's from a z-skit imitation, it alludes to one of my fav comedy skits on a TOS forum, don't know the artest's name but I have to give them credit (else it's plagurizing).

Chapter 13

Paths

They walked across the road, Lloyd kicked up a sizable amount of dust, his head was bowed, and for good reason. He'd started the same game he had played on Kratos in the Martel temple. His choice of victum however had been a bad one, he started to play that game with Raine, asking when they'd get there. The mercenaries response had been eventually when Lloyd had put the question to the elf teacher for the third time her response had been a firm smack. Grumbling Lloyd rubbed his head with one hand, then slowly he striaghtened, shook his head sharply and picked up his pace. One hand hung limp at his side while he walked, the other seemed to be pernamently hovering over the hilt of his sword. While no one else seemed to notice, or care Kratos had picked up on it, and felt a flickure of pride. Lloyd may still have a large number of childish tendencies, one of them being to push the adults patience around him to the limit, but he was slowly growing up. He recalled in Iselia how Lloyd had forgotten he wore swords in his fight with the Desians, then how in Triet he had walked with them but paid them little heed, now he was understanding, paying attention. If only the same could be said for the others. Riane lectured, Genis asked questions, as did the Chosen, yet Lloyd gave the conversation half an ear and the rest of his attention was focused on the road about him. He started when the grass about them stirred, but when a rabbit popped out he relaxed, laughed at himself, and went back to his inexperienced scanning of the terrain. There were lessons to be learned on the road, more important then the elf teachers endless chat about history, lessons on reality. He left his place at the rear of the part, brushed past the teacher and her pupils and easily matched pace with the younger swordsman. Lloyd checked over his shoulder, gave him a wan smile, and looked at his Iselian friends a wistful look in his eyes.

"If you want to join them feel free, I do not need any help." Kratos offered, understanding that look for he had worn it himself from time to time.

"Nah, it's not fair for you to have to do this all the time, you should be able to hang with Noishe sometimes you know?"

Kratos smiled, he seemed capable of the gesture more often these days then he had in most of his life. They walked in companionable silence, and he was aware of the glare of death that Raine was favoring with him while Lloyd seemed all but ignorant of it. Lloyd was becoming an influence for him, he realized as he came to know his own thoughts, 'glare of death' indeed, he was starting to think in what the elf child called Lloyd-isms. Perhaps he should limit his time around the young man, else he start to really pick up on the boy's juvinal habbits and sayings. Still if glares could kill he'd be a dead man by now so Lloyd's words while childish certianly captured the spirit of animosity between himself and the elven professor. He awaited in quiet dread the day Colette's clumbsyness brushed off onto him or the others, he also waited for the elven sibs arrogence to also prove catchy, but such were the dangers of traveling with others, traits brushed off, personalities clashed together like steel on steel. In some cases wood on steel, or hand on skull, he looked Lloyd over from the corner of his eye, mentally wincing at the bruise that chestnut colored hair hid. Lloyd seemed to be ignoring the pain of his latest smack, but honestly such an attack seemed grossly dispraportionate to the young man's actions. A spark of anger ignited in the wasteland of his soul, a soul that had until this journey had really begun, been empty of emotion.

"Why do you allow her to hit you?" Kratos asked, they were far enough ahead that if they kept there voices down Raine would not hear them. Lloyd shrugged, did not seem to wish to answer, Kratos however was not going to keep his peace, he'd kept it long enough already. "I can understand if you were enemies, or if your actions unchecked would genuinely put us in danger, in those cases I could see where a physical repremand would be aproprite. In no other situations could I begin to understand why you would tolerate such treatment."

"She's just making sure I'm not bad, that's all."

"There are other ways to insure good behavior from a child." Kratos growled, Lloyd passive response only stoked the spark and let it catch and turn into a small flame. "Verbal scolding, explaining, the latter is a marvel she has yet to pick up on it seems."

Lloyd frowned, scuffed his boot and looked to the area around them, forsaking his watch for thought. Kratos easily picked it up, set his eyes to drifting. They walked on the back of a dusty stretch of ground that rolled to the northern mountains. They would walk this road to the first of the cliffs, undernieth a canopy of stone they would camp and break away from the dusty boot worn path where grass did not grow. Alongside it, soft and alluring to weary feet, were slender slips of green, they lapped against the road that would rise and fall in small hills, hills would bleed into mountain, and it ws in the shadows of the mountain they would travel to keep from the eyes of those one the road. Well they would if he could persuade them after dinner that the threat of staying on road warrented the extended amount of time going off road would entail. Up ahead Kratos could make out the dust that heralded a wagon, the wagon was making a good clip away from them, perhaps there camp site would have the merchant caravan, the thought of being able to share the fires of another without wasting there rationed firewood was a pleasing one. The merchants and others with the caravan could be company, a final break he could take from those in the group around him before going into the wilds bound them all together for the sake of survival. It would be nice to just talk to someone else, or even eavsedrop on conversations not related to the damned Regeneration. He swore that if he heard one more prayer in angelic before nightfall he was going to scream. Every meal, every rest the girl prayed, it was a gratting pracitce that the younger of the elf sibs participated in and the elder from time to time joined in. In that he and Lloyd were outcaste from the group, Kratos would not break the tenates of his own religion for the sake of even being polite, and Lloyd would grow uncomfortable and tend to Noishe's fur or paws during the spans of prayer. Taking a deep breath he gathered his annoyence and dispelled it with a slow out take of his life's breath.

"Well... you know when a little kid gets all excited and is about to go stick there hand in a fire, Raine's smacks are like that."

"No, they aren not." Kratos argued. "There is an immediate danger that the child would inflict upon themselves if not reprimanded, yet there is no danger from you being annoying."

"Oh gee, thanks..." Lloyd grumbled, rubbing his head, there talk of it was making him focus on his pain. Well and good, it would drive Kratos' words home and hopefully make the boy think about what Raine was doing. "I don't think she means to hit hard."

"She still does." Kratos pointed out, his eyes bore into Lloyd with just a sliver of hope that the young man would see what he was trying to say. "In this case intent is totally divorced from action." Lloyd looked at him in helpless confusion and the mercenary sighed. "It does not matter, the intent, the action. What is achieved and what is intended mean nothing." Still more confusion, yes he would definatly be tutoring Lloyd while they traveled, the boy should have enough knowledge to follow such a basic idea to completion. "Even though she does not mean to hurt you she still does despite the fact that she does not mean to. She continues to hurt you without meaning to, and in that she is wrong."

"Oh, now I follow, but why'd you say all that other junk before it?"

If Kratos did not rip out all of his hair in frusteration before they were done first it was going to be gray, he'd age and look older then Raine if this was a sign of how under educated Lloyd really was.

"We shall discuss that later. How does it make you feel?"

Genis and Colette were now gosiping, catching a few words in dwarven he realized they must be discussing who would be cooking, certianly if Lloyd could make up that code he was intellegent enough to learn something more academic. For now though, he scolded himself seeing that if he followed his own thoughts he'd be teaching Lloyd twenty things at once and getting no where, focus on the lessons that held the highest impact at the moment. He smiled, only to himself and only in his mind, when he could feel Raine's glare lose some of it's anger and turn curious.

"Kinda rotten."

"Elaborate if you would."

"Well it hurts, and throbs for a while."

"You always say, or almost seem to say 'what did I do', certainly your expression says that." Kratos decided to give the young man a bit of a argumentative push so to speak, to nudge him into saying his mind freely.

"I... think that every time." Lloyd blushed. "I really don't know what I did, and if I say that she gives me this... look like I should know."

"If she told you, would you stop?"

He could almost feel Raine's curiousity disolve into shame as she eavesdropped on the conversation and realized the topic.

"Most of the time, yeah."

"Have you ever told her 'to' stop, to explain?"

Lloyd went quiet, and his voice dropped down to a so soft a whisper that Kratos had to strain to hear it.

"I didn't quite catch that.." Kratos leaned towards Lloyd, as if to better hear the words. He was well aware of the curious gazes that Colette and Genis were favoring him with, and he hoped and recieved the answer he so wanted.

"Do you 'think' I want her to skin me alive!" Lloyd flared, then blushed and looked behind them at the others. Genis and Colette both looked baffled and Raine, much to Kratos imense satisfaction, was looking very embarresed. Lloyd turned to the road, picked up his pace a bit and again Kratos kept in step with the youngster. "You pushed me into saying that didn't you?"

"The only thing I pushed you into saying, or rather reveiling, were your feelings on a matter that you were not tending to yourself. You don't think about it Lloyd, you push it away in this pretense of stupidity and it gnaws on you with acid fangs. You claim to speak your mind, and certianly you do on surface subjects, but when your feelings are involved you become mute."

Lloyd gave him a long flat look that made Kratos sigh, this time he allowed the sound to be heard aloud instead of echoing in the darkness of his mind.

"If you wish to join your friends go right ahead." The mercenary focused on the road, could not look at Lloyd just yet.

"Just... because you make me mad doesn't mean we aren't friends." Lloyd said in a tight voice. "I'm still pissed that you... made me get angry... but that doesn't make us not friends." Lloyd continued to walk along side him, did not slow his gait any, but then faced with staying with the surly mercenary or the teacher who had just over heard something that had would compramise her very honor... Perhaps he was seen as the lesser of two evils. Lloyd managed to hold onto the bulk of his anger for almost an hour, Raine kicked up a impromptu lecture about the history of Hakonesi Peak, and Colette and Genis fast forgot Lloyd's out burst. When the anger seemed to abate enough Kratos would begin the other lessons, survival, hunting, tracking, Lloyd had some aptitude but there was more he could learn. And while they traveled together Kratos intended to impart all the knowledge he could.

xxx xxx

"Look professor, people!" Colette chirped, pointing to the wagons that were stained red from the camp fires and the setting son. Genis moaned as he watched Colette rush ahead. Lloyd did not follow, he was rubbing his head talking to Kratos about something softly, not argueing but trying to pick something out between words maybe. I t had to be something complicated like that or else Lloyd wouldn't have had that strange pre-occupied expression on his face. Raine hearing his pain gently patted his head, and he looked up and smiled a bit. He knew she couldn't heal cramped muscles, blisters, or aching bones, so he'd just have to suffer, but when she put her hand on his head the pain went away a little. Kratos, he had learned, could walk very fast. He thought that Riane was fast, that Lloyd was fast, and they were, over short spans. Kratos was fast and was fast over long spans. He had a inexhastable stanima, only pausing to rest when Colette looked to needed it, or when someone signaled that they thought Colette needed it. She never siad when she got tired, but Lloyd had seen the disspirited expression before they set up for a pre-lunch snack, and Genis had caught Colette's empty eyed gaze on the road right after there lunch stop. Noishe had even once just stopped, right in the middle of the road and laid down indicating he wasn't going any farther. If Genis were making them stop it would have been for longer spans of time, and much more frequently, and when he'd openly whined about hurting Kratos had ordered Noishe to carry him. Noishe had tried to bite Kratos for that, then had carried him for a few miles then had abruptly sat and Genis had tumbled off of the dog's shoulders.

"Stupid dog..." He grumbled, staring at Noishe who now had padded up to Lloyd and was now getting his ears scritched.

"Yeah bet you're eager to have some nice warm dinner aren't ya boy?"

"Bark!"

"Chosen! Get back here!" Kratos growled, sounding more fierce then any wolf of dog Genis had ever seen before.

"Sorry Mr. Krato- opps!" She tripped mid-appologie and smashed into the earth. They all winced at the by now, very familiar sight, and Lloyd like all the other times before ran up to Colette and pulled her to her feet.

"You could be just a little nicer to Colette you know." Lloyd snapped glaring at the mercenary.

Kratos only sighed.

"You both are guilty of this flaw, you presume everyone you see and meet is a friend. Not everyone is a kind person Lloyd, not every camp fire is a sanctuary, bandits too set fires on the side of the road."

"I've yet to see a bandit, or hear of one that has a wagon Mr. Aurion." Raine said coldly.

"You aren't very well traveled Ms. Sage."

"It's illogical, wagons stand out, the main goal of a thief would be to blend in." Genis poined out. "Even though we aren't well traveled we aren't stupid enough to not know that!"

"Here we go again..." Lloyd rolled his eyes. "I'm feeling like a parent..."

Kratos blushed, Raine cringed, and both adults looked very uncomfortable. Genis opened his mouth intending to say something, when Raine put a hand on his shoulder and fell silent under the gentle presure she exerted.

"Come on, we need to get going, a warm meal does sound nice."

"Hurmph... I shall take point, just in case it turns out to be dangerous of course."

xxx xxx xxx

It wasn't dangerous, as Genis later parroted Kratos' words back at him with heavy sarcasm laced through the whole statement. Both elves declared the mercenary parinoid, and Lloyd just stayed out of the fighting between his oldest friends and his newest. Colette stayed with Raine and the travelers -they called themselves zoologists whatever that was- and while Colette played with the children while Raine and Genis talked to the parents. Lloyd just hung out with Noishe. He'd trapped himself with the dog just so the guy named Noah would leave poor Noishe alone. The second he'd left, just to go to the privys, he'd come back to a panicked Noishe trying to scramble up a tree to get away from the man who was holding a piece of glass and tweezers saying he wanted a hair sample for research. Poor Noishe, the Professor and Genis had caught the spirit, and they'd tried to steal Noishe to make some notes for a spiece study...

Lloyd had taken Noishe for a walk at that point, just so they had an excuse to get away from it for a few minuets. When he'd come back he'd pointedly joined the sleeping Kratos, drawn his sword, and stood watch over his dog while many pairs of bright inquisitive eyes bore into him... or rather Noishe. Finally they went back to sharing reames of paper and he could relax. Lloyd patted his dogs head, lay his sword on his lap, and lay against the mass of silver green warmth and fuz. He watched the stars as they came out, no longer obscured by a mess of trees he could see and count them all it seemed. But you could only really appreciate the stars laying on your back, so he scooted away from Noishe and drapped a blanket over himself. Warm, comforted by the winking stars, Lloyd let out a yawn that Noishe mimiced. They were of the same mind it seemed. Noishe rolled over, stretched his paws into the air, and through half closed eyes stared at the silver streaks that flashed across the back of the sky.

"They say that when Aska lets fall the crown of fiery heaven from his weary head, at his flights conclution, the color of the world abandon his wings. The colors of all caress the skies and fly to the most northern region to sit in the great creators eye. Drained from his duties Aska seeks his rest on the highest mountain, his fire falling behind him, scorching the clouds as he ascends to the roost of heaven. His lover, Luna, takes up that crown and begins her walk across the length and width of the worlds skies, but so jealous is Shadow the entity of the great dark, that the envoy of the abyss paces behind Luna forever seeking that which he can never have."

Lloyd smiled, trust Kratos to say some random story like that.

"Sorry I woke you." Lloyd yawned, 'you' sounding more like 'uhh' then anything else because of that yawn.

"No problem, it's my turn for watch anyways."

"So.. why'd you tell it?"

"Must I have a reason for everything?" Kratos though sounding annoyed had a slight smile on his lips.

"Humph." Lloyd shifted under the blanket. "Guess not."

"Go to sleep, my reasons aren't important." Lloyd stared at Kratos, a pleading look in his eyes and with a sigh Kratos submited. "I like having someone who doesn't scream 'heratic' everytime I open my mouth."

So they had a like of the stars, and stories, and they both had the same reason for telling and not telling those stories. Lloyd smiled, closed his eyes, and scooted closer to his dog.

"Not dangerous my ass." Lloyd grumbled, patting Noishe's side, the dog's tail wagged, though it was a slow swish that indicated the dog was falling asleep.

"Indeed." Kratos chuckled. "I almost wish it were bandits rather then zoologists, though I'd never think myself to be saying that."

"Mmm..." Lloyd was struggling to stay awake. "That was a good story 'bout Shadow and all, where'd you hear it?"

"A friend told me, long ago."

"Oh..." Lloyd felt the world fadding away. "That's... inter.." He yawned, tried to talk again but his eyes were getting so heavy.

"Go to sleep Lloyd, I'll wake you at dawn." Kratos drew his sword and lay in on his lap, eyes scanning the terrain.

Lloyd's response was a gental snore.

xx xx xx

"North is the path of heavens heart, bathed in the light of Aska's crown.

South the world of darkness lies, the lair of Shadow he of the blooded eye.

The west lies the wind's wily heart,

go to the east and see were the mountians start.

Between dark and wind lies the pure maiden with a restless soul.

Between dark and earth lays a kingdom topped with a throne of cold.

Red line of the forges fire splits sky from light,

as purple lines cuts a sky burning path that keeps earth from light."

Lloyd rolled the compass in his hands, while he spoke he pointed to each direction, speaking the words to recall direction, to explain why the letter was painted a certain hue in this and all compasses. Colette found it interesing, Genis teased him for telling one of his tall tales, and Raine began to compare the story to some other one she'd heard in the Martel church and proceeded to do a cross analisis between the two. It was just a story, sheesh, he hadn't ment to trigger the Professor's ruin mode. Well it wasn't a real bad case of ruin mode so he kept his peace. Colette slowed down til she was in step with Noishe and covered the dog in kisses, pettings, and baby talk. Genis hung with him while they both kept a healthy distance from Raine.

"If I ever get like that Raine-smack me back to my senses please."

"How about we make a pact." Lloyd offered. "If ever one of us shows signs of 'anything' mode the sane one must deliver a smack."

They shook on that and continued at what Kratos was now sarcastically calling a snails pace. They'd travled one day at Kratos' rate of speed, the next morning it was all the Iseilan's could do to walk. They'd all given the mercenary such venom filled glances that he agreed to let them set the pace, and now if his words were to be believed they were going at a mere crawl. Everyone, the sane ones if you asked Raine, ignored his grumbles and refused to have anything to do with him, even Noishe. They'd spent the morning after meeting up with the zoologist Noah, walking alongside a wall of green choked earth. It was a cliff that over looked no path, no ocean, and poking out of it was a wierd asortments of roots, rocks, and a few shots of grass that looked for all the world like stubs of hair on a balding head. Firmly dragging the protesting elf professor who was howling that she _must_ take samples and conduct research, the mercenary had made them all but run past that span, they'd followed it until it ran out, and walked across hilly earth with ankle high grass, stoping to have lunch with mountains jutting out on the horizen. Kratos then had spread a map across the napping Noishe's back and had told them his plans, they were to be at the feet of that mountian by tonight. They'd spent three days keeping the mountains on there right hand side, and follow the path between the Palma peaks and the unnamed mountians that cut travelers off from going to Thodia save through a small valley. They'd go pass the valley, stick to the Palma's. By following the Palma's they'd come to the main road a goodly way closer to Hakonese, they'd skip by the house of salvation and make the last leg of the journet in three days time. A weeks journey by his estimate. They'd stared at the near eighty mile hike on that map, stared at Kratos, and then had a vote about Kratos' insanity right there in front of him. Even Lloyd had agreed the mercenary was nuts. They had made it to the mountian as planned, however the next day they had not been able to travel even a fifth of that distance. It was then, while Kratos was there main navigator, Lloyd was there pace setter.

"He's more sensitive to us then you are, you hardly noticed when Colette almost colapsed." Riane had growled over breakfast when Kratos had protested the third day.

"Twenty miles a day is not a fast pace." Kratos snarled at Raine, a map in hands that he read whilst walking.

"Is to." Lloyd growled.

"It's more then we are used to Mr. Aurion, we are simple villigers. Out of all of us I'm the only one who's ever even been outside Iselia and that was a very long time ago."

Kratos growled, given them all this look that was a mix of pity, scorn, and was mercifully silent while they continued on there way. Finally around noon he folded up the map, slid it into his packs, and decided it was time to seperate Lloyd from his friends so he could give some of his lessons. He picked up his pace, caught up with Colette, Genis and Lloyd while they talked in there pidgin language of common and dwarven, and the fact he could follow none of it told him that they were probably discussing him, a fact that was confirmed when he joined them and they fell silent giving him a long look.

"Hey Kratos, what's up?" Lloyd smiled at him, but he normally smiled at everyone and everything, there was much of Colette in him.

"Do you remember that talk we had in PalmaCosta?"

"N- I mean yeah..." Lloyd squeaked when Kratos' eyes narrowed. "About the lessons... you remembered huh?"

"That remindes me Mr. Aurion, but don't you and my brother have something to tend to to see if you are even remaining in our company?"

Kratos' expresion was something like a flinch, a wince, and grimace all rolled up into one. In short he wore the exact same expression Lloyd was just wearing.

"Tonight Ms. Sage, if your brother agrees."

"Ummm... wouldn't it be kina hard to make him go away now? I mean he's the only one who knows where we're going..." Lloyd pointed out, Genis and Raine glared at him and he cringed under the venom filled gazes.

"I am more then capable of leading us Lloyd." Raine said at last.

"Ms. Sage, if you think that is reality you need to let go of that delusion before it kills the rest of this group."

"I'm going to hang with Noishe..." Lloyd turned and went to his dog.

"I'm going to stay with Lloyd." Genis muttered over his shoulder, already abandoning the adults to yet what looked to be another fight.

"I'll keep Mr. Kratos company!" Colette chirped, waving to her friends who were looking at her kinda funny.

"Colette, why don't you join the boys for a little bit, Mr. Aurion and I have something to... discuss."

"I'd like to stay with Kratos, pretty please Professor."

Raine rose an eyebrow, Kratos looked startled, even though the tone was as sweet natured as always there was a hint of steel under the softness. From his place in the back Lloyd whistled, he knew that tone having heard it twice before. Colette would get what she wanted, she'd stay even if Raine and Kratos started yelling at each other. Noishe having heard it once before as well let out a fast breath that caught in his fangs and mimed a human's whistle. The adults gave the swordsman and dog a long look.

"If it were me I'd come." Was all Lloyd said to Raine's intense gaze.

"Lloyd, why don't you, Genis and Colette take a break and we'll go off a ways to have our conversation." Raine sugested in a tone that was more order then sugestion.

Colette clasped her hands in front of her, and met Raine's gaze.

"You're going to have another arguement." Colette accused.

"It's just a matter between Mr. Aur-"

"You're going to have an argument." Colette did not accuse, merely stated a fact. "I don't like it when you fight and if I stay with Kratos you wont so I am staying with him."

Both adults stared at the Chosen, who by all acounts in there minds an innocent child.

"Colette..." Raine began.

"I'm sorry Professor, but I'm not letting you fight so I'm staying with Kratos."

"How did you get your claws into her Kratos?" Raine hissed, eyes turning to slits.

Kratos snarled, his hand clenched the hilt of his sword. "What kind of monster do you take me for Ms. Sage, I could throw that very accusation back in-"

"We're gunna just go back a little ways." Lloyd called to them, knowing by the glint in Colette's eyes she'd handle the whole thing by herself. He took Genis' arm and firmly lead the protesting elf somewhere less heated.

xxx xxx xxx

"I'd of given a lot of gald to know what she said." Genis muttered as he set up the fire while the sun was setting behind him.

"She yelled at Ivan once when she found him beating me up." Lloyd shivered. "It's not what she says, rather how she says it. She just gets this tough look on her face and she doesn't yell or anything, but you do what she says."

Both children looked up at the very quiet adults. Kratos and Raine hadn't said a thing after Colette's talk. It had been hours since one of the adult had even opened there mouths and they were both looking very embaressed. They almost looked like two people who'd just been Raine'd. As matter of fact the only words that Kratos had even spoken after whatever Colette had told him were, "we'll set up camp here, it's secure" and all Raine had siad was a word they weren't supposed to say after she Colette stepped on a rock. It was wierd everything being this quiet, and Genis talked quite a bit to fill in the stillness.

"It's just a little scary, I never knew Colette could yell at anyone before." Genis admited, and since no one seemed to be talking or scolding him he wiggled his fingers and set the pile of wood on fire with a spell.

"If you think about it how often does she have to yell, ever, normally people just do what she wants you know?" Lloyd dragged the pot of beef stew over by the flames and put the lid on top so it'd cook faster.

Both boys gave a long glance at Colette who was now praying over a closed book, saying those wierd words and waving her hand up and down. Lloyd looked away, it was wired, he probably shouldn't even be here because of it, but whenever Colette called on the angels to protect them he just got this cold lump in his gut. Genis though smiled, comforted by Colette praying, and maybe he found it normal and comfortable, but Lloyd just couldn't. He decided not to tell Genis of the time Colette had spoken to him in the same tone she'd used on the mercenary and teacher. It had been about his lack of belief, and if there was something between them that they'd never see eye to eye on it was that. He was, to his knowledge, the only person who'd ever sucsessfully argued with Colette when she took up that quiet steely tone. Even the memory of that talk between him and her made him go cold all over. Colette was tough, strong, so much stronger then him in this way. Lloyd scooted closer to the fire so he'd warm up faster and the cold pit would go away. Genis walked by him, popped open the lid and stared at the stew.

"Yuck Lloyd do we have to have all of this meat?"

"I make good stew." Lloyd grumbled, not looking away from the fire, thinking, of all things, about Salamanders.

"Haven't you heard of onion, spices, potatoes, or carrots?"

Lloyd didn't bother to reply, he was staring at the fires blue heart, wondering if the sly twinkling of the flame was indeed scales catching on the moonlight and the humored winking of slitted reptilian eyes.

So intent was he in his thoughts he did not see Kratos gaze settle on him with something much like fondness glittering in his eyes.

xxx xxx

They didn't check the threads until morning. Genis hastily gulped down his breakfast of scrambled eggs, and decided to grit his teeth and get it over with. He sat crosslegged in the soft long grass, buried up to his waist in flowing natural threads of green. Kratos sat three feet away facing the small elf his cape spread beneath him, like an extension of his shadow. Kratos' dark eyes were clossed and his body was so tense you'd think he was going into a fight. The only person who was even hanging about him was Noishe, who looked to be little more then an extension of the grass. He lay, curled about the mercenary with a familiarity that once would have sparked Lloyd's jealousy. Now it wasn't, Lloyd was too worried to be jealous or think of anything but his worry. Genis held his sister's hand in a one handed white knuckle grip and Colette's with the other. Lloyd sat between Raine and Noishe, rattling the steel sword in it's sheath, he'd have bit his nails but they were in there usual finger covering crimson gloves.

"Lloyd, stop it, your all antsy." Genis muttered, not bothering to open his eyes.

"I'm sitting as still as I can!"

"No your threads are all twisted up, could you get them to sit still I can't focus on Kratos until they are."

"What?"

Genis opened his eyes and gave him a long look.

"When they move they pulse with light and it hurts to look at it could you... you have to calm down."

"Think of the guardian spell Lloyd, don't call the energy just think of the images that came with the energy." Kratos advised.

Sighing Lloyd tried, though of the chilled air, warm embrace, and star light as best he could.

"Alright, I'm going to use my Sight on you and then I'm going to Reach like before."

"Let's just get this over with." Kratos growled.

xxx

_It was cold, a jagged wall of ice and steel that gleamed crimson, red seeped out from the spears of silver blue, seeped out along the edges and if they were not the quills of a porcipine but shards jabbed into the fleash. There was a numbing cold that sucked the very warmth from him, warned him off from reaching and he heeded the warning for now anyways. He looked up, seemed to slid along side those walls only to find that they were in truth walls. He swept over them and could see those soft seductive looking threads that looked like fur and were not. He knew to reach there was to be cut again so he held off the reaching. He looked up, suprised that unlike with the wall of silver in red he did not go up as his gaze went up. He could see from far away thing threads of gold shimmering with a strange life, they wove through the mess off false softness, drifted over the wall, and went off to other places. He decided since he was here to follow one of those threads. _

_He picked a gold thread that thrummed with like a slow heart beat. He watched it roll underneath him, and suddenly he felt a blanket over him, a warm presence by his side..._

_A thin finger traced the tear streaks running down his face, they held a promise that everything was going to be alright, a promise that he now knew, for once in his life he knew that for truth._

_"He's turning into quite the talker isn't he?"_

_"He takes after you in that." Kratos voice, his voice, was tight._

_"Oh gee, thanks, I love you too Mr. Aurion."_

_"Hush my love, we need to be quiet he needs his sleep. He's had a busy day."_

_"You know if you actually put him in the crib we could talk above a whisper."_

_"Like Hell I'm letting him go, and if you want to take it up with him I wouldn't bother. His hands are gripping my tunic so tight we'll need a crow bar come morning."_

_"He's strong, just like his father."_

_"And his mother," Kratos said promptly. "If I had been in your shoes for a month I'd have gone mad, that bastard, hurting you like he did."_

_"That's then, this is now. This is truth my love." A woman's hand took his/their hand and layed in on a warm soft lump that he could not see. The golden thread slithered under his gaze then fell away and bound itself to nothing. Where there should have been another there was a looming darkness that echoed in it's emptyness and set rivlets of pain and loss that was not his own..._

xxx

Genis made a noise, a squeaky gasp, and jerked. Raine was going to stand, attack the mercenary, but Kratos too made a noise of such unbearable pain that she froze. He was shaking, pale, a mere ghost of a man, and his hand clenched on nothing, clawed at nothing. then they both went still, it was as if they both were bing controled by whatever they saw.

xxx xxx

_He felt a gust of icy wind smash into him, his grip on the thread wavered snapped and he found himself at the wall. He knew, without knowing how he knew, that Kratos had cut him off from seeing the rest from going deeper. Shamed he would have blushed, he hadn't ment to see that, but he had not blood to rish to his cheeks, was nothing but a pair of eyes. Grimly he went up, selected another thread, walked again the golden road._

_Steel rang out across steel. Flashed through the air and sliced down, turning a few moments and the flat smashed against a red clad rump. The jolt of the sword's hilt in his arm was familiar, his very skin had grown tough around his hands to adjust it was so familiar._

_"Ouch, Kratos!" Lloyd looked up at him in frusteration. "Why don't you just put on a wig and start yapping about ruins or something and I woudln't be able to tell the difference between you and Riane!"_

_"Would you like me to conect with the edge?"_

_"No..." Lloyd coughed. "But damn that was emberrasing!"_

_"If your guard is that bad..."_

_"Yeah yeah... I get you... I asked for it blah blah insert serious lecture about lack of skill here."_

_"Are you jealous?"_

_"No... I was, now I'm not."_

_"Why not?" Kratos dipped his blade down and Lloyd relaxed, leaned against a tree. The scent of sea and quick view he glimpsed around him told Genis that he was seeing a sparing match in Izoold. _

_"You spent your life doing this, probably since you were little you know? Me, I only started when I was thirteen, I've got all of four years of on and off pracitce. I'll probably never get as good as you."_

_"Humility is a becoming trait, but do not sell yourself short. You have potential, you just need more practice that is all."_

_"Woah who are you and what did you do to Kratos?"_

_"I stuffed him under the bed before I took his form and voice." Kratos grinned slightly at his bad joke and Lloyd chuckled._

_"Well you need to glare more and make growling noises instead of scentances or no one's going to be fooled."_

_Warm emotions boiled in him, pride, respect, and something deep, so deep it shook Genis out of the trance within a trance. He did not need to follow the thread all the way back, he knew it would lead to fiery writhing energy that was Lloyd. Shaken, he retreated to the wall, stood in front of the mess of writhing silver blue. He took a step forward and wiated for the daggers to pull him in._

xxx xxx

"Did he just giggle?" Lloyd asked, having this funny kind of tug in his head and chest. He wondered what Genis had siad and why he'd been in on it. "That dork he's snickering, I wonder what he's seeing that's so funny and he wont tell the rest of us?"

"Lloyd hush." Raine smiled slightly at him, relieved Genis wasn't as pale as before.

"What's taking him so long professor?" Colette asked. "He said it was pretty quick before."

"Genis told me that he was going to check a few things, he was going to make absolutely sure that Kratos was safe to trust, I imagine he's just being his thurough self and going over everything a few times. Now be quiet, he'll tell us when he wakes up."

xxx xxx

_Nothing was happening, it wasn't parting it wasn't dragging him in. He Reached and it was hard, sharp, but did not draw blood. It would not open for him, he could not pass. He could feel Kratos anger pound on him, he was aware of Kratos' eyes upon him, and realized with a start that Kratos was seeing as he Saw._

_"What are you hiding, how can you see this!"_

_I am aware, came the words without voice they were ideas dropped in his mind, aware of all I am and have been. This is merely an aspect of my awareness, for being aware is being in control and what lies back there is not for your eyes child. It is for the eyes of no one save my own. The world within is the soul within and in that relm you have no right to tresspass._

xxx xxx

Genis opened his eyes, stared at Kratos numbly, boy and man met each other's gaze in there eyes a mystery no one could read. It was creepy seeing them both that still, that distant, the could have been mirror images of each other despite there differences in apperence, size, and race.

"If you ever do that again know I will not hold back as I did in PalmaCosta."

Genis nodded, though he had no fear about him.

"I didn't know, I'm sorry."

"Do you know, really, I find that interesting." Kratos stood, though he staggered just a little. Noishe hopped to his paws, and the mercenary leaned against the dog for a long moment before reaching for his cloak. He put it on, oblivious to the grass stains, then tottered off, waving Lloyd's offer of assistence off.

"I need some time alone to clear my head, we'll leave at noon."

Noishe padded behind the mercenary, silent as the wind over the earth.

Raine stared at the man, he was making a very large asumption that he was staying.

"You OK Genis?" Lloyd knelt down in front of his friend.

"I need to... be alone for a little... with Raine." Genis whispered.

"Alright." Lloyd fondly ruffled his small friends hair. "We'll set up a kinda mini camp over behind that rock. That way if you need us you can find us."

Genis nodded, curled into Raine's embrace and sighed a heavy sigh filled with unshed tears.

"Go ahead Lloyd, I know what I'm doing." Raine smiled wanely.

Taking Colette's hand in his own Lloyd walked off, where they sat and wondered.

xxx xxx

Well he was staying, for all that ment. He shivered, the ghost of that touch, that innocent's touch in his mind made him feel sick. The horrors that he knew lay in his mind must pale before the horrors that enshrounded his soul. He'd never hear of it however, Genis had told Raine and Raine had looked so ill he'd not pressed her for details. He rubbed the scars that ran down his back, an absent gesture that was nearly as old as he was. He sat apart from them, stared at the stars and those thousand and one eyes of his ancestors stared back in blazing scutiny. Genis was as skitish as ever, but not possessed of the blinding terror, the animal fear, and that was some small iota of comfort. He rolled the hilt of a dagger in his hands, used the comfort of cold steel to banish whatever horrors lurked in the shadowed corners of his mind. He spared a glance for the children, Colette and Raine were weaving a near visible cacoon of suport and warmth around Genis, one member of there little support group however was missing. Lloyd, he'd been there in the begining and had wandered off.

"Hey," something clinked together in Lloyd's hands, Kratos turned, surprised when Lloyd strolled up to him twin glasses in steed of two swords in hand. "Taking first watch again?"

"Of course." He did not smile, only stated a fact. Lloyd however was not one to be spooked so easily by his lack of open friendliness. The young man sat besides the mercenary and offered a glass... of coffee. Thoughtful of him, but if he was drinking a glass as well it held a meaning. "So who asigned double watch?"

"Huh?"

"I thought... Coffee after nightfall Lloyd, _again_?"

"It tastes good." Lloyd sniffed. "And I only made me a half a cup."

"So Raine is half as likely to beat you senseless for being antsy at night."

"Exactly." Lloyd grinned, folded his legs under him and offered the glass to the older swordsman.

They both sat, sipped there cups, and said nothing for a long time. The brew was bitter, rough, and strong enough to make the hairs on Kratos' neck prick up. Oh it all but garenteed his wakefulness for the next few days it was that strong. Lloyd, Kratos knew, would probably be sharing all the watches quite against his will, even for partaking in only half a cup. Still it was good, he could taste the milk and sugar mixed in, it muffled the true harshness that took the Trietian delicacy. He rolled the liquid on his tongue even as Lloyd lay against the grass and crossed his arms in front of him. He seemed this night to defy the very stars he admired. Setting aside his cup for the moment Kratos stared at the sky, his mind twisting to it's old paterns as fast as a man's legs take to a twisted road troden on too long.

"What do you think about when you stare at the stars?" Lloyd said, there was no real prompt, he'd spoken on some random whim it seemed. Kratos pulled himself from his thoughts, his worries and made a noise in his throat that could have served as an answer. Lloyd made a noise of his own, he snorted and turned to face his elder. "Oh yeah like I'm supposed to believe it when you say nothing."

"My thoughts are my buisness."

"Fine." Lloyd went back to staring at the stars above, he managed to remain silent for all of ten seconds, a sign the caffine was preying with his mind. "Sooo... I've been thinking about the Martel buisness and I think it's kinda sad, how they see things."

"Such dangerous thoughts for one on this pilgramige."

"They're dangerous anywhere."

Kratos said nothing, and Lloyd looked to him to see if he had finally pushed the older man's tolerance too far. The younger swordsman blinked, Kratos was paying him the compliment of his complete undivided attention.

"I used to ask all these questions when I was little, and all the priests would answer but after a bit they'd get annoyed and all they'd ever say is Martel. Martel is the answer to everything, why does it rain? Martel. What's beauty, Martel? Why's the sky blue? Martel. They don't... think once that word comes in. They'd never see Salamanders or Wind Spirits. When they look like now, I dunno what you see when you look up and I'd bet it's different from what I see, but all they'd see is Martel."

"So then a spider would be..."

"Martel." Lloyd answered with a curl of his lips.

"Then I've stepped on a number of Martel's in my life."

They both shared a chuckle.

"It seems horrible that they don't see this stuff, the stories, or look for anything new in something they think they know. All because of that one word."

"Words can be damning things." Kratos said, and he lay back against the cool grass, a night breeze set the grass to caressing them both. It made the fire and those around it shiver and start at the thin threads of dark that caressed the edges of the light. "They can bind and destroy so much. Consider a man who can not read, a man of power writes some law that leads to the death of the ignorant innocent, that is the power of words."

"But... if no one follows that man and he writes down the law nothing happens."

"Those who control words normally have power."

"I read and write and I'm not powerful, Raine reads and writes and she couldn't do that with her words."

"You use words, you don't control them. Words are a tool that you haphazardly apply to the world around you to explain what you experience. When you control words you pick each phraise with care, and that care is directed by a feeling you wish others to experience, and if you are good enough you can do so."

"That's hard to believe."

"You have an example behind you and you don't see it?"

"Wha-" Lloyd looked to see Genis, still in Raines amrs, and Colette talking. "There just hanging out and gossiping."

"If you were to go in there and talk of... Ivan what would that do to the mood?"

"Probably kill it, I don-"

"Then let me finish and if understanding has not come to you I shall try again. There is a mood of cheer, and your words, or the subject you center on them, can adversly affect the mood. That is a kind of power, you can, by offering your opinion, a subject, even a few noises that aren't even full words, you can affect your friends mood. A man with a strength in words and control over himself could very possible sway strangers, could command legions and never pick up a sword to do so."

Lloyd frowned, eyes thoughtful, but then Kratos had a way of doing that to him.

"That must be a really powerful thing to have that kind of strength." Lloyd said after a long while.

"All strength is is power Lloyd. Strength is just another word for power."

"I never figured, well I kinda did but I never thought about it you know?"

"No, I do not know, since you are being very vague with your words."

Lloyd scrunched up his face, tried to think of another way to put it that would make sense.

"Normally when I think of strength I think of how tough a person is in there body, or I'd think how brave they are when things look bad."

"So strength is then physical stanama and courage?"

"No... It might just be something more then that."

"Good." Kratos closed his eyes, and lay back against the ground, looking for all the world as if he was going to just take a nap. "If you question the nature of strength then you undoutably will become stronger. If I may ask you something on the lines of a personal question?"

"Go ahead, not like I haven't put you through twenty some questions already." Lloyd stared at the stars and it seemed as if they were staring back.

"Why do you desire strength?"

"To protect my friends and family." Lloyd said without so much of a seconds hesitation.

"How will you do that Lloyd? Build walls about them and keep them from all the world? That would be the best course for there saftey."

"If they're with me and they're in danger then all I want is to be able to keep them safe. I can't change what happens when I'm not there, but if something horrible's happening around me I want just enough strength to be able to do something, to do the right thing."

"To do... something, and to to the right thing are not the same. And the idea of what is right is a fickel thing at that. You did the right thing once in a ranch, it was a stupid thing to do but at the moment it was the right thing, you had that power to step in and protect someone and you did. Your intents in all there purity did not save a life, but cost lives, how could that be the right thing."?

"And the right thing was to just turn away!" Lloyd snarled, his hands clenching into fists.

"For the whole, yes."

"But not for Marble it wasn't!" Lloyd growled.

"One person's life, is it worth the lives of a village?"

Lloyd flinched, Kratos might as well just stab him in the back and get it over with. He writhed a bit at the old pain, his concience burned and the pain made his eyes smart. Gritting his teeth Lloyd shoved down the tears, glared at the sky, and told himself not to look at Kratos. Because if he did he'd probably hit the man.

"You weren't there, you couldn't hear it or see it or anything, so how can you even THINK to say anything like that?"

"Do you think I am ignorant as to what happens in the Ranches Lloyd? If so that is a grave mistake on your part. I have heard the screams of those under the boot of the strong and unjust, I have seen peole 'die' because some pure hearted person went into a fight and didn't consider the consequences."

"I didn't think of the consequences yeah, but I can't just turn away when someones getting hurt right in front of me!"

"Then you must grow strong Lloyd, stronger then you may wish, stronger then more then one way. To know why you draw a blade and when to do so is more important then any skill that you can possess in weilding it."

Lloyd took a long deep breath, ordered himself not to pound Kratos into a bloody pulp though the thought was tempting.

"Your playing with my head again." Was all Lloyd whispered, he was shaking with rage.

"You are allowing me to do so." Came Kratos counter. "And I am not manipulating you Lloyd, you have already made your decisions on the matter, I do not force you or comand you to break away from those, only consider them. If you change your course because you have found a flaw because my words have made you look inside yourself know that the looking, the listening to my words, and the change, that is all your action. If ever I force you to do anything, if ever I manipulate you, then you would be totally justified in your anger and it would be your place to rebuke me or strike me down."

"I'm going for a walk." Was all Lloyd said, picking himself up from the grass covered earth.

"Lloyd." Kratos' voice was a soft sigh on the night wind, and the swordsman turned, stared at his elder. "Though you go off alone to dwell upon my words know that you are not fully alone. They say that the night wind is the surest messenger, and that when the need is great it will take your need to the person who may best aid you. I think it is not mere circumstance or even convention that we speak the most during the darkest hours."

Like, like in stories, like in beliefs, and sometimes in thought, he would not break that no matter how mad he got.

"Maybe your right, I dunno, but then I don't know a lot."

"You'll learn, knowledge and strength will come in time."

"I hope so."

"I know so."

To that he had no response, so he turned and went off a ways to clear his head, to think, wonder, and worry alone. And when it came too much, perhaps, just perhaps the night winds would help him.

xxx xxx xxx

Colette hummed as she walked, enjoying the green grass tipped in golden sunlight. She skipped, which was really tricky in the grass, but was in such a good mood that she didn't notice. Genis was riding Noshy and Lloyd was keeping step besides his cute dog and talking to them both. Ocasionally Noshy's barks and howls carried to her ears, and once Genis' laughter did too. It was good to hear Genis laugh he had seemed so scared, but now he wasn't and everything was alright again. Raine and Kratos still weren't very nice to each other, but they didn't yell anymore and that made colette even happier, though she wished she could make them be friends. It was just a matter of time and patience, if you waited long enough and hoped long enough eventually everyone would stop being angry with each other, and she planned to do just that. Something glittered on the road, flashed between the strands of long tickly green, so she bent and picked it up. It was a darker green then Noshy's fur, the size of her palm, and glittered in the sun light like her cruxis crystal would. She lifted it up, frowned, it wasn't exactly a rock and on really close examination (She loved using Raine's Ruin words!) saw that though it looked smooth it possessed several small bumps and ridges that caught the light and flashed. It wasn't a rock, it wasn't a animal, she had no clue what it was, so she walked back to the others.

"Professor... I found something for your scientific journal!"

"You did!" Raine smiled, her blue eyes warming. "Let's see it dear."

Mr. Kratos did not smile when he saw it, he frowned and got a scary look on his face.

"Chosen, did you remember where this came from."

"Over there..." Colette pointed back the way she'd came and frowned. "Well it was more over there..." This was so confusing everthing looked so much the same, she pointed now in what she hoped was the right direction. "Do you know what it is Mr. Kratos?"

"A scale." The mercenary scowled and looked very scary. "From a venomous insect shapped creature that's the size of a horse."

"Mr. Kratos... what's a horse?" Colette asked.

The black clad mercenary made a choking noise in his throat, stared at her then muttered a not so nice word under his breath.

"Iselia's a self sufficenit village Mr. Aurion, we don't go anywhere outside our own borders for anything if we can help it. We don't have horses, part of the non-agression treaty was that all the war animals were to be killed and just to be safe all the horses that Iselia used to have were slaughtered."

"The only way you can sell and buy things to Iselia if you are an outsider is by going in during the days that we've set aside for selling forign merchandise." Genis added, slidding down off Noishe and taking the scale to look at it.

"Talk about a pain in the butt." Lloyd grumbled. "Do you know how many trips I'd have to make the night before one of those things with Noishe in the forrest just to make sure Dad had stuff to sell?"

Noishe shuddered and Lloyd did so as well.

"Did you see any tracks?"

"No Mr. Kratos, just the scale."

"Wonderful," Kratos eyes grew distant. "Chosen, Genis, I want you to keep pace with Raine. Lloyd keep a little ahead of Raine. The dog and I will scout ahead."

"Whine!" Noishe slicked his ears back and bolted.

"Or I could just scout ahead." Kratos muttered, Colette giggled, Kratos was pretty silly sometimes.

"You know the last time he bolted there was a monster right on top of us." Lloyd pointed out.

"I don't hear a bloody thing however."

"Oh look!" A thin slip of white poked out from the grass,two thin slips of fluffy white and it hopped towards them. "A rabbit!" Colette squealed.

"Oh boy... Colette maybe you shouldn't..." Lloyd began half heartedly.

Too late Colette ran up to it to pick it up. She tripped on a rock and sprawled out, crushing the grass around her right in front of it. The rabbit was snowy white with glittering red eyes. It squeaked, hopped back, and seeing Colette wasn't moving nibbled on her hair. It was the lowest kind of monster Sylvarant had to offer, one of the smallest in size, and it could with some effort be actually tamed. This one, as it gleefully chewed Colette's hair showed itself not to be a tame one.

"Your turn." Genis and Lloyd said to each other simutaniously.

"I did it last time!" Genis whinned.

"Fine fine..." Lloyd took a deep breath and went forward. He walked on silent feet, up to the animal-monster and when he was alongside it hit it in a tackle. It squealed, thrashed in his grip, but having done this since he was ten he knew how to fight a rabbit. He pinned the comically long legs being careful of the claws, turned it's head away from him and carried it a few feet off. He dropped it on the ground, gave it a sharp punt, and told it to scram. With an offended squeal the small monster did so.

"You're far too soft hearted Lloyd." Raine scolded, though a smile curled her lips.

"It's just a rabbit Professor, anyways Colette likes them so I try not to hurt it."

Colette stood with Genis' help.

"Ow... I'm sorry I thought it was a nice rabbit."

"Are there any other monsters she runs up to, happy to see it?" Kratos muttered, giving Colette an annoyed look.

"Anything that looks like a dog." Genis told him and the blonde Chosen smiled.

"You never know it could be a doggie."

"I believe your generosity has gone unapreciated Lloyd."

"Huh?"

There was a crunch of grass behind him, he turned, a blur of white smashed into his face twice and he staggered back and tripped, landing on his rump. Perched on his knees the rabit monster hissed, showing off it's small needle like teeth. With a squeal it threw itself forward, smashing into Lloyd's chest and knocking him down so that he was obscured by the grass. His cried of pain and for help were not muffled in the slightest by the plant life.

"He's being beaten by a rabbit..." Kratos shielded his face with a hand.

"Two rabbits." Genis pointed to a new pair of ears with a snickure in his voice.

"Oh look even more rabbits are comming!" Colette giggled. "They must really like him."

Kratos counted another three pairs of ears going Lloyd's way.

Raine was laughing, leaning against he staff and laughing so hard tears were comming to her eyes and Genis wasn't in much better shape.

"Chosen, stay with the elves." Kratos muttered drawing his blade.

The mercenary walked over to Lloyd, who was now being nipped and kicked by a small gang of rabbits, and he frowned, Lloyd should have been able to get up on his own the attacks weren't that serious... Kratos only wondered about why for all of ten seconds when something rose out of the ground and grabbed his ankle and two furry wieghts of white smashed into him and knocked him from his feet. His sword went flying. Another length of something bound both his ankle and one of the rabbits hopped onto his chest and let out a triumphent squeak. It managed a pained squeal when he punched it with his fist and it disapeared into the foilage. There was a hiss, a flash of silvered steel, Kratos watched as Lloyd's blade hacked at something he couldn't see. the sense of something holding his left foot was gone. he sat up, tucked his leg under him and pulled out his knife. He was already sawing at the vine that held his right leg, free he stabbed one of the more offensive rabbits, ripped the small animals carcass from his blade, and went to work on the vines that Lloyd couldn't reach that pinned the young man down. The second he was free Lloyd scrambled back, away from the rabbits and the ground that had so suddenly sprouted vines, by now the elves and even the Chosen were looking concerned.

A little late for that, Kratos thought.

"Kratos over there." Lloyd pointed with his sword and the mercenary turned and stared at a woman who had for all intents and purposes risen out of the greenery. She glared at them with flat unfriendly green eyes, was garbed in leaves and had thin vines serving as her hair and a large pink flower tucked behind her pointed ear.

"A wood nymph... in a plain?" Raine muttered, comming to her senses as the animals cordinated attacks and wildly high intellegence suddenly had a very deadly reason.

The creature stared at Raine, opened her bow shapped mouth and sang a few bird notes. The song was stragnely omunious, and Kratos joined Lloyd in his retreat, or rather meant to. Seeing his sword the mercenary decided to dare a quick run and snatch. Something screached, clawed at his head and he ducked, and rolled, the grass parted around him as more vines slithered just under the earth to try to grab him again. He stabbed one of the green roots, the other wound itself around his wrist. Snarling a string of profanities Kratos ripped the root out of the earth, the move numbed his hand for as he pulled it tightened it's grip. Still he wanted his damned sword, he was going to keep it, he endured the pain and snatched up his blade and retreated. Lloyd joined up with him, sending waves of silver energy into the ground and ripping up more grass and earth then conecting with any of there foes.

"Professor duck!" Colette called, the elf cringed behind her staff, and by the bloody talloned bird and the thin marks that ran down her arms the elf woman had already taken a few hits. A ring hissed over the elf's head and slashed into the bird, and turned it into a mess of blood and feathers. She caught the ring with far more grace then Kratos had ever seen her use before and looked forlornly at the crimson liquid that dripped down the side. "I'm sorry Mr. Bird, I didn't want to do that..."

The mercenary ignored those laments, he had no time for them. He blocked the first rabbit that so that the kicking paws smashed against the flat of his weapon, the second he skewered before it could begin it's attack. Grimly gripping the swordsmans arm Kratos dragged the young man behind him as they ran. Seeing his intent Raine snatched Colette's arm in one hand and Genis' in the other. And still behind them the nymph sung her song of lament with it's ominous notes blended in, and the birds from the sky began to swoop down at them. The attacks became less and less frequent as they got farther away, the small elfs lightinging bolts might have had something to do with that.

"That was... highly uncommon..." Raine gasped, clutching her side.

"Welcome to the joys of travel Ms. Sage." Kratos snarled, rubbing his arm. "Monsters of legend that the church scoffles at are a grim reality to any who take a step off the road."

"See staying on the road would have been..."

"Do you want to fight mobs of fanatic worshipers instead? How about bandits, do you favor those?" Raine fell silent, then gestured for Kratos to offer her his hand. Kratos unwond the length of green and Raine stared at the bruising and made a sympathtic noise which the mercenary ignored. "And by looks of it that wasn't the worst we shall be facing." Kratos looked meaningfully at the scale Colette had hooked to her belt.

"Great..." Lloyd rubbed one of his bites and hissed in pain. "Now what?"

"We start taking this seriously." He gave them all a firm look. "This is not a game, this is not a childs romp and I can not catter to any of your lack of experience for long."

"I didn't see you doing all that good out there." Genis pointed out.

"At least I acted and did not point and laugh." Kratos countered, making the elves flinch.

"Umm Professor..." Lloyd's voice had a hint of pain to it. "One of them got my hand good."

Raine left the mercenary, took Lloyd's hand in her own, and both ignored the look that Kratos pinned on them. It could have been jelousy, anger, Lloyd wasn't sure what, he just wanted the pain to stop. Tisking the teacher scolded him for not saying something sooner, and spread his fingers of the hand he was cradeling. Besides the scar that ran a path down between the space between his thumb and first finger, was a very deep looking red skinless span. Warmth and light filled it and Lloyd sighed when it faded, the only sign he bore from that injury was the large rip in his glove.

"Thanks Professor, your the best!"

Raine smiled at the praise, patted his head fondly and went back to stand by her brother.

"Alright Mr. Aurion, obviously our conduct for that situation was not the best." Raine cooly met the man's gaze. "Tell us what we can do better in the future."

"That could take a while."

"It's not like we have anything else that's as pressing." Raine pointed out grimly.

"That would imply that you trust me, alone with yourself and with your brother. Do you?"

"No." Raine's hands tightened around her staff. "I don't."

"Oh I have an idea!" Colette chirped her lips curled into a wide smile. "Kratos can teach Lloyd and Lloyd can teach us!"

"I... don't like it much." Raine said slowly. "But it is Lloyd's decision whether to take these lessons not mine."

Lloyd's mouth hung open in total shock. He had half expected Raine to say no, to stand in front of him staff drawn, ready to pound Kratos to bits if the mercenary took so much as a step in his direction.

"Well Lloyd?" Kratos stared at him, his face a mask as distant as it had been in Triet after there first lesson, that same need in his voice was before.

And it was to that need that he answered.

"Sure," Lloyd smiled. "Though I bet I'm so good at tracking and stuff already you'll be asking me how to hunt stuff by time we're done."

And as before there came that glint of cold humor, sharp as steel, and it glimmered in the mercenaries eyes.

"We shall see. Come, we should look for your dog that will be your first test."

"Easyest thing ever." Lloyd smirked, not catching the look.

xxx xxx xxx

For something easy it took an hour. Kratos said nothing, pateintly waited until they found the dog, and the second Lloyd was done with his emotional reunion with Noishe cleared his throat. Lloyd looked up at him, still pleased with himself and his acomplishment. Kratos preceeded to trim that over weening pride till nothing was left. At least this time Lloyd didn't sulk, he took the lessons graciously, questioned, and Kratos made him use those lessons to find there way back to the camp, or rather where it should have been.

"No one's here!"

"They moved," Kratos frowned, only a little worried, if the elf had moved it was probably for a good reason. Lesson time, he decided, was over. They both crouched, scanned the ground for clues, and it was the strange square tracks that were large then his palm caught and held Kratos' attention. They looked, almost like an insects legs. Recalling the scale he cursed, drew his blade and after a few moments of looking about nodded. Yes something had happened, the mess of human and insect tracks told him that.

"I think they went that way, but what the heck were the running from? I don't see any tracks but theres."

Well at least they were running in the right direction to get them farther along thier path, that was a small relief however.

"No time, come on!" Kratos barked, and seeing the blade and grim expression Lloyd paled but followed suit, and they both ran following the faint blurs that Kratos could glimpse between the tangled greenry.

xxx

Colette shrieked, ducked, a gust of wind filled the birds wings and forced it to over shoot it's target. Genis closed his eyes, tapped his kendama in it's old rythm, his lips moved and his fingers twitched. He was doing good, warm pride filled her, banished the cold of fear. She whipped her staff through the air, smashed it into the armored flank of the large mantis shapped creature. It squeaked, spun on it's skelital legs and reguarded her. It's fore paws were bent in reverence, a silent prayer that if voiced came in soft chitters and clicks of fangs tapping together. It had no eyes, no soft points which she could bruise, or poke, but then the skin itslef was armor and all softness lay underneath. That softness muffled her pumeting strikes, lessoned the damage and pain, and the skin was far too hard to be broken by her gem tipped staff.

...Goddes Martel help us!" There was a shriek, a sickening rip and tearing sound, and the avian that had been chasing after them, pulling at there hair, fell to the earth in pieces. glimmers of red and pink caught in the shoulder joints, where the monster had lost it's wings. A minor voctory to be sure, but now that the last of the winged monsters were gone.

"Sis!" Raine blocked the twin claws that reached for her, her staff shuddered as it took the hit. She ignored the black liquid that dripped from the two holes in her weapon, was not startled that it's bite was venomous, she had seen the poisen sacks swell when it spotted her in the begining of thier flight.

She shrieked, smashed her staff into it's skull and the monster staggered back and made a noise much like a whimper. It shook it's head sharply and she took a few steps back, lifted her weapon for another strike. It hissed, clicked it's teeth, dlack liquid dripped from it's teeth, and it reached with four of it's arms insteed of the two fore. She blocked the amrs that slid under the stream of venom for a heart beat before thrusting forward, but the legs that sported no claws managed to shoved her forward, taking away all that distance that she'd stolen back. She brought her staff around, jammed it into the mouth and the beast withdrew, clicking it's teeth and made little gagging noises while it retreated.

"Didn't like the taste of that?" She quiped, ramming the staff between those chattering mandibles. The monster scrambled back a little more. "Genis, use your spread spell!"

"On it... _Maiden of purity help expell this abomination from the face of the world..._"

"Halt!"

The beast turned in response to the raw challenge in the human's voice, it shrieked as if in pain and Raine caught a glimmer of silver in it's side.

"Light of the Goddess..." Colette muttered, drawing the symbol of the crossing mortal destinies with devine holyness over her heart, her wings shivered at her sides.

Hte beast charged Kratos, went right out of the range of Genis' spell. Cursing Raine smashed the bests' back legs and it turned, was going to charge her. She ran, the monster took a few steps after her, and Genis' spell went off too soon. The monster took the brunt of the hit, but as the water fell back down it revieled the insect split in twain from it's fall and the stabbing of Colette's feathers. Raine was also revieled, she was dripping wet, having been clipped by the spell.

"Man, I didn't even get to do anything..." Lloyd whined, Raine was not caring for Lloyd at the moment, her eyes locked onto Genis.

"I didn't mean to miss!" He whimpered, cringing back from her glare.

"Genis Sage you are in so much trouble!"

"Eep..."

He didn't run, but he knew better then to run. She firmly scooped him up and he hung limply in her arms. At least until the first stinging smack connected to his rump.

"How many times have I told you..." Smack. "To be careful when using your mana that might not have been..." Smack. "A water spell you could have hit me with!" Smack.

Colette covered her eyes and ears best she could, Lloyd gulped and looked away and covered his ears, Kratos looked on radiating his disgust.

Raine put her brother down, knelt besides him and look him straight in the eyes.

"Do you know why I did that?"

Genis nodded, sniffled.

"What you did was very dangerous, hitting me with that spell, if you couldn't have been able to hit one without the other then what should you have done?"

"Canceled the spell..." Genis sniffed, rubbed his eyes. "I wont let it happen again Raine, I promise."

"Good," She held him. "Don't you ever do anything that dangerous ever again!"

"Is she done yet?" Lloyd whispered to Kratos.

"I think so." Kratos looked disgusted.

Raine ignored them both, stroked Genis' hair.

"I don't like when I have to do that, but until you stop doing dangerous things, like hitting other people with spells without thinking about it, I'm going to have to keep doing that."

"It wont happen again." Genis gulped, stared at the ground.

Making a noise of scorn Kratos finally caught her attention, Raine stood, stared at the man's black brown eyes.

"I raise my brother as best I can, you raised your child as best you could, you have no right to criticize."

There was no scorn in the man now only a fiery rage.

"_What _did you say?"

Raine met those fire flecked eyes cooly, and repeated herself. She stood outwardly calm against the storm of hatred in Kratos. His calm so easily shattered by such a simple comment what could have been... Then she realized how deep her rebutale had hit the heart, and mentally cursed herself. Her words would be tantamount to her insulting Dirk for caring for a human son. No parent worth anything would not become angry at the intuendos those words could hold.

She would have appologized, but he ordered them to go ahead, he was going to scout the area behind them for pursuit and deal with it. his tone and eyes promised that every monster he did find would die a painful death for his rage. Rage she had so thoughtlessly triggered.

Rage, she knew, that if she triggered too often would lead to him ignoring her danger, her needs. How easily she could be 'left behind' or 'forgotten' in a battle. And in his eyes while he promised the death of any beast he encountered there was a glimmer in the dark orbs that told her that the next fight he would be very indifferent to her needs.

No it wasn't something he told, it was something he promised.

xxx xxx xxx

She had called on him at dinner. Using words no other could speak, no other knew, she had called and to not answer would be to break his oath to her. He could not do that, so he risked Kratos anger but suddenly anouncing he was not sharing watch with the mercenary. The man had protested but Lloyd had to answer that call, and he would answer it, no matter what. He ate, aware of the glare of death that was boring into him. He nibbled on his sandwich, it was a cold dinner, the first in a long time, and though it was kinda warm outside he missed his fire cooked food. He didn't protest, didn't whine, and really didn't even talk to anyone. He worried, wondered, Raine had used the highest emergency code that he had set up for her in his private oath. He could not deny that need, her fear, and he wouldn't, though answering it caused him no little of his own.

"I do not understand..." Kratos began, sounding just a bit sulky, it was kinda funny, normally he was the sulky one.

"I can't explain." Lloyd shrugged, rolled out his blankets. "I'm sorry, but I just can't, don't worry Colette's pretty good at doing watches anyways, she used to do them lots when we'd camp out at Dad's."

Kratos stared at him, his black brown eyes seemed frusterated, and were by no means defeated yet.

"Still..."

Lloyd knew what Kratos was going to do, he was going to keep talking, or just stare at him till Lloyd gave in, Lloyd had a defense against that.

"Noshy, make Kratos go away!" Lloyd growled into the earth, he did not look up when there was a growl and a startled noise on Kratos' part. He looked up only once to meet the startled man's eyes. "I need my sleep for last watch, I'm gunna get my sleep." Lloyd yawned hugely, rolled over. "And if you don't let me I'll make Noshy sit on you."

There were no more attempts on Kratos' part to keep him up.

xxx xxx xxx

Raine sighed, tucked her hair behind her pointed ears, drew her rumpled orange coat about her to ward the chill. She sighed, the dark seemed a physical wieght, a light with a hundred silver suns above there heads that radiated so little light they only streaked the night with hints of there color. Lloyd looked into that familiar darkness, but she knew he was paying strict attention to her, he was capable sometimes of an amazing ability to give two demanding jobs his complete attention and comming out with the best results for both. He was using that skill now, listening to her and the world about him. She had not liked this, she was to guild, that was her job and love, and now she must look to her student for guildance. It made her vernable, made her feel week, and also gave her an insight perhaps into Lloyd's mind. She had no way to explain these feelings, they were not measurable, there were no clear examples, and for that she flet much like her formidable mind was useless. She did not like this feeling, it made her feel as if she was nothing.

_It is impossible to compare something to it's like, if you hold a piece of mirror and look into it and have another same sized and shaped mirror and you strive to compare them there is nothing. They reflect the same thing, they throw the same questions that you press upon them as surely as they reflect your own image for they are same or so much the same that there is no way to differenciate, and with no differenciation you might as well as compare on reflection to another and strive to see a difference for all good that will do._

The old writings of the philosophers of olden days came to her and offered no answers, nor did the stars, but perhaps this child, her student, and by his oath an extended member of her family, could.

"He doesn't like you, and I hate to say it but you're probably right. I could see him doing that." Lloyd gripped the hilt of his sword. "He did it to me, and to Genis in Iselia, or tried, when he could finally see how much we ment to Colette he started protecting us as much as her."

"I am improtant to Colette." Raine's tone made it more a question then a statement.

"Of course you are, but he probably doesn't see that, and until he does..." Lloyd grimaced. "I'll stay by you as much as I can, if I'm there he might move to protect me and protect you if something bad happens." Lloyd let out a deep breath. "He's really pissing me off with this. I hate it as much as Colette does when everyone's fighting."

"Why do you like him?" Raine asked, rolling the wooden staff in her hand. She had scrubbed it clean of poison hours ago but now worried over the twin holes in the middle of the weapon making it weak.

"He, needs me to." Lloyd said slowly, she could feel his frown more then see it. "I need, and he needs, if that makes any sense."

"It doesn't." Raine said cooly. "But then a lot of you doens't make sense, and while you tend to take a strange route you normally come to the right or even better end then any expect."

Lloyd laughed. "I so did not get that, but I think it means that I'm cool right, so thanks!"

Raine chuckled, shook her head, Lloyd would never learn, but then that was part of who he was. His firm stuborness and faith nearly as strong as Colette's but put in utterly alien things such as others, and ideas... It was as alien to them as there faith in a 'bunch of feathered peoples' -as he'd termed it when he was eleven years old- was to him. She had a fond image of making him apply that stuborness to school work, held that fantasy for a few moments, and let it go in it's proper place of where all day dreams lay.

"He's not one of us." Raine said at last.

"No, but that's only because we both keep him from being that. We don't let him in he doesn't try to come in, we don't push he doesn't shove, so nothing happens."

The teacher looked to her pupil surprised by his sudden bout of eloquence.

"If I hadn't pushed, and kept pushing how many friends do you think I'd have?" Lloyd said more to the sky then her. "I kept pushing, and my pushing made a ton of people mad. I can't go back Professor, I can't go back home now."

Raine gently held him, his voice had broken only the smallest bit, but she knew him so well. How could she not, she who was for all intents and purposes his Aunt? He'd never cried, not when Ivan ramed a sword into him, even through the painful wounds he'd gotten in PalmaCosta, Triet, or anywhere else. He had never cried and once when he had been about to had whipped his face and looked up at her pain and pride on his small face. He'd looked up at her and in that high pitched voice normally shrieking laughter or jokes had said.

'No more tears now, see?'

He shivered, swallowed once, and smiled at her.

"Yuck Professor, you're a girl and you're hugging me!"

And though while the words were childish, and the tone disgusted she could see past his one mask, the only mask he'd ever worn in all his life. She saw his gratitude and smiled wanly, slid a hand through his hair.

"Your Aunt can't hug her little nephew?"

"I'm taller then you are." He grinned at her, the smile so familiar was back, but still those eyes glittered with heavy choking tears. She wondered, for a heartbeat if they ever released a few of those tears they housed.

"Are not." She drew him near and he leaned against her, his head resting on her shoulder.

"Are too."

"Are not, and stop treating me like my brother, I wont play your game all day like he will."

"Heh, sorry." He looked up, stared at the stars and smiled, and the whole of the night sky seemed to roost in his eyes. "I'll keep you guys safe, like I'll keep Colette safe, like I tried to for Genis in Triet, I promise."

"You don't have to make that promise Lloyd." Raine said softly, her voice little more then a breeze on the night air to him.

"Yes, I do. If I didn't I wouldn't be me, I protect my family, no matter what."

xxx xxx xxx

Some of what Raine siad made more sense that day. He noticed of course, the intense glare from under a mask of hair. Who couldn't... well except Colette who was in a chreeful mood. They would be in the pass with mountains on either side come noon, but for now they followed the rolling hills, the sea to thier right, the mountains to there left, and Kratos eyes boring a hole in his back. Lloyd kept his mouth shut, Genis seemed thrilled that he was hanging with his sister, and kept easy pace with them both while Colette and Noishe were trying to match thier skipping. Kratos hung in the back, talking to no one, no one talking to him. His eyes said more then enough however. Lloyd kept his mouth shut, though the glare felt like a silent accusation at his back. It nagged, hovered over him almost like a threat, except the anger behind it was grazing him and settling on Raine. Suddenly he turned on his heel, and for once surpirse flashed across Kratos' face as Lloyd favored the mercenary with the harshest glare he could muster.

"Stop it!" Lloyd growled.

"Stop what?" The mask was in place, but Lloyd had seen something, panic, pain? Lloyd wasn't sure what it was and he didn't care all that much.

"Staring, you're gunna glare Professor Sage to death if you keep it up, so just stop."

Kratos said nothing, only looked at Lloyd with unblinking black pool eyes. Lloyd returned the stare, though he felt like a small bird in the gaze of a snake. He kept his shivering to himself, a long moment dragged out and Kratos looked at him with disapointment writen on every inch of his somber face. The mercenary flicked his gaze off to the side, glared at the grass about him, and Lloyd wondered absently as he fell in line, making himself as much of a physical screen between her and the mercenart as he could, if they'd leave paths of withered grass every step they traveled with the guy. He wouldn't of been surprised.

It was as they traveled through the pass between the Plama's and the Water Wall range (Raine had found an anchient name for the mountains in her history book) that Lloyd learned the nature of that glare.

When Genis hung with him the small elf got the nastiest glare, Raine got the second nastiest, Colette got a wierd intense look that both adults would give them and as if on some unspoken pact they'd be seperated if they so much as hold hands. The only person who wouldn't be glared at was Noishe, Kratos liked it when they were together for some reason.

No amount of protesting, waiting, or telling Raine to tell Katos to stop it, was working. He'd get the glares if he hung out with any of his friends. Lloyd decided he didn't like it, and was so mad at Kratos that he skipped evening swords practice for two nights in a row. He took long walks away from the camp, used hunting as his excuse, and took a protesting Noishe with him both times. By the time they made it through the narrow valley that lead to the main road tensions were so high Genis said to his sister while setting up thier first fire in a few days, that if you put Kratos real close to the wood and Lloyd real close to the wood the fire would spark all on it's own. Raine had agreed, set up the pot of water that Lloyd had filled for them at the very edge of the flames and wiated for it to boil so that they could re-fill thier dwindling water skins with pureified water.

"You know I wanted them to have a disagreement in the begning, just so I could say that I was right about Kratos, but now I feel sick. Part of me want them to yell so it goes away a little, I know if Lloyd yells at Kratos at least he will calm down in a few hours after and act like he normally does. The other part really doesn't want to see Kratos and Lloyd fight, becuase I get this sinking feeling that Kratos might hold a grudge over it like Ivan."

"Couldn't you tell that from your... Sight, from Kratos' Threads?" Raine asked, setting the lid over the pot.

"He has a long memory, doesn't forget all that much, but I don't know if that's becuase he he's vindictive or not. There was some stuff I couldn't look at."

Raine nodded, picked a piece of wood up and tossed in on the blazing pile.

"Don't worry Genis, I imagine everything will be alright."

Genis nodded, beliving her, she wished she could believe herself.

xxx xxx xxx

Kratos was cooking, much to everyone's surprise. Normally he threw together a sandwich or a mess of cooked meat and potatoes when it was his turn, the food was normally so bland that they only asigned him the task when everyone else (excluding Raine) wasn't feeling up to it. Heck they'd had Lloyd do the cooking over Kratos because at least Lloyd tried to add spices to his food and asked Genis for suggestions whilst cooking. Lloyd peered over the man's shoulder, stared at the mess of brown bubbling sludge with small lumps running through it and made a gagging noise.

"It looks aweful what is it?"

"Chilli," Kratos sniffed, gave the mess of brown beans a thoughtful look. He pulled out a vial of cinimin, and sprinked a little on and went to mixing it in.

"Chill-y?" Lloyd frowned.

"Someone has to cook with the beans who knows what they are, and we have a plentiful source of water as well as herbs and spices." Kratos lectured, the only person who was appreciating that lecture however was Genis, who had dropped his distrust of Kratos and was now sitting a few yards away loyally writing down evrey ingredient and pelting Kratos with questions about why he put every spice in. "Chilli seemed a logical choice."

"It's a Trietian dish." Raine siad, for Lloyd's benifit. "The clime makes beans and certain spices comon there and that dish is a good way to use a little bit of everything all at once."

"Oh," Lloyd stared at the bubbling brown sludge. "Are you going to put meat in that or is it just gunna be beans and spices?"

"No." Kratos was considering the pot, then went through there packs and fished out a long wooden board, he took some of the meat that Lloyd had caught on one of his impromptu hunts, and drew a knife from his belt.

"Eww you cook with your fighting knives?"

"I clean them." Kratos sounded just a mite offended.

"Do you know just how unsanitary that is?" Raine shrilled, Kratos ignored her comment.

"Yuck, that's nasty!" Genis made a face. "It'd be like Lloyd cooking with a sword!"

"Do you want to borrow my cooking knife Mr. Kratos?" Colette offered meekly.

"I clean my knives." Kratos growled.

Noishe met Kratos' eyes and mimed gagging.

"For the love of Or-" Whatever Kratos was swearing off of turned into a low growl. "Fine, fetch me a knife if it makes you all comfortable."

"Bark!" Noishe wagged his tail, seemed as happy about the situation, though why he'd care about it Lloyd had no clue. It wasn't like the dog was going to be eating any of this. Well, maybe he would, Lloyd could probably sneak his dog his bowl. The young swordsman stared at the mess of brown, and felt just a tiny be sorry for Noishe.

"So," Genis almost had curled around Kratos, the look on the small elf's face brough chilling images of Raine at a ruin. "Where'd you learn to cut meat like that? The technique's a lot more effective then mine."

"Practice." Kratos said coldly, his knife seeming to blur as it rose and fell into the mess of red, making the rabit's flesh into thin slivers and then cutting those into small tiny pieces.

"Oh so you cook a lot when your on your own?"

"Something like that."

"Genis," Lloyd hissed, coming up with the answer before his friend for once. "Think about what Kratos does for a living."

"Oh..." Genis went pale. "You mean..."

"A knife isn't all that much different from a sword." Kratos added with a hint of amusement at the boy's expence. "So I posess a great deal of practice so to say."

Still in cooking mode Genis was not repulsed in the slightest. Recalling there promise about modes Lloyd toyed with the idea of delivering a smack, he decided against it, Genis was nearby knives and fire, and all sorts of other dangerous cooking impliments in this mode of his. Lloyd would wait until a less dangeorus mode apeared before doing anything. He's smack Genis if say the elf developed 'volcano mode' or something. He let them both go at it, hung with Raine, who was making notes -more like guesses- about how Kratos was cooking. Unable to take it he joined Colette, who was as interested in Kratos' cooking as Raine was. He let them both make thier guesses with each other and decided to stick with Noishe till dinner was done. At least the dog wouldn't start yapping about spices and meat and cooking junk. Leaning agianst the warm side of his dog, drapping an arm across Noishe's back, he looked up at the darkening sky. They'd be out of the pass in by tomorrow, three more days on the road and then they'd leave the region and go to some place called Hako... Huka... Something or other pass and look at that book. Raine was looking forward to it, so was Colette, Lloyd and Genis were bracing for the rush of Ruin mode that was to come. Colette's gasp of shock and Raine's gasp of appreciation made Lloyd look to Kratos, and see the man dump a heck of a lot of a lot of green pepers into the "chilli". Maybe, just maybe, Noishe would take Colette's bowl too. He'd like that.

As if to agree the massive green tipped tail smacked into the earth.

xxx xxx xxx

Noishe was champion that night, he siddled up to Lloyd and when the Iselian petted him the dog bowed his head and licked the spicy food from his 'owners' bowl. Lloyd had given up his second bowl with no protests after that. Oh it looked nasty, Noishe would completely agree with that, brown beans in brown sludge with hints of red and green floating though it was not a pretty sight, but it tasted wonderful, at least that was Lloyd's term. Noishe got to add his own words however to it, his tail wagged as he finished off the bowl and eyed Colette's.

"No, bad dog!" Lloyd growled, and tried to tackle Noishe down, the dog gracefully sidestepped the clumbsy attack, padded up to the Chosen and unleashed his most devistating weapon.

Colette met his gaze, patted his head, and gave the sad puppy her food. Ignoring that the puppy was taller and bigger then she was, and the fact that the puppy had already eaten a bowlful of human food.

Ah the power of the puppy eye gaze with a well timed whimper.

Genis scumbled to the might of a pinning paw and watched as his remains of his third serving disappeared behind a wall of glittering fangs. As for Raine, well it was then Noishe met his match. He slicked his ears back and scrambled away from the elf and her staff of doom, slinked to the fire seeing the pot left all alone and undefended. His eyes brightened and he snagged the lid with his teeth and threw it aside.

"Stop him, he'll eat all of our breakfast!" Lloyd howled.

Already Genis and Raine were on their feet kendama and staff at the ready. They were too slow however, he dipped his head down, his tongue began to slip between his teeth. And a black gloved hand closed over his snout, keeping him from opening his mouth. He was shoved, firmly, away from the food. Kratos stood arms crossed, eyes blazing, glaring down at him with black pit eyes. Noishe tried to defend himself, honest it was just a bite to tide him over till breakfast, he wasn't going to eat the whole thing, just a nibble. Before he could get past the third whine Noishe was firmly smacked.

"Stay out of our food Noishe." Kratos growled.

Noishe tried his puppy eye gaze, and those eyes didn't give an inch.

"Whine?"

Try moving stone with a whine? It would have gone farther then Kratos did in pity's direction.

"Since you have eaten so much of our food," Kratos said in a soft leathal voice. "You can hunt for us in the morning."

"Kratos Noishe is a total coward, he can't hunt!" Genis protested, and if Noishe had the ability he'd of hugged and kissed the boy there and then.

"He will, or he can find out what other very unpleasent tasks I will asign to him and will if he refuses to do so or comes up with nothing."

"Mr. Aurion," Raine snorted. "He's incapable of understanding you, he's an animal for Martel's sake!"

"He understands," Lloyd gave him a pitying look. "Look at him, he totally gets it."

Noishe looked up at Kratos, eyes wide, ears slicked back, a pleading whimper gargled in his throat and died.

"If I do not see three rabits here come dawn you will find out quite painfully what 'unpleasent task' means."

"Whine..." Noishe sighed, scuffed a paw across the earth.

"Nice knowing you Noishe." Lloyd muttered, then looking at all the dishes heaved his own sigh. "Dish call!"

"Dish call?" Kratos rose an eyebrow.

Colette took his bowl, spoon, took Raine's, and Genis took everything from Colette and walked to Lloyd,m handing it all over to the young swordsman.

"Dish call." Genis repeated, offering towl and soap to the young swordsman. "New order by the way, Lloyd, you, me, then Raine."

"Why does the Chosen not do the dishes?" Kratos wondered, it was more to himself then to anyone else but Genis answered him anyway.

"Colette would drop them."

"I break them every time I try." The blonde haired girl admited with a blush.

Kratos only shook his head in wonder at the thousand and one rituals and sayings all of these Iselians harbored, it was farther prof he had much to learn. Noishe met the mercenary's eyes, and winked, showing he had faith that Kratos would catch on. Eventually.

xxx xxx xxx

Five Noishe lengths ahead was the rest of the group, for once it was Kratos and Lloyd who had trouble keeping pace wiht everyone. Such was the price of failed hunting. Having slept in and missing his time to hunt the dog was now being punished. He carried all the suplies, the elf sibs and the Chosen all at once. They were making beter time to be sure. The mercenary was able to keep pace so long as Noishe didn't break into a run, and Lloyd was somewhat able to keep pace. Clutching his side, gasping a few profanities about how his legs were killing him. Still Lloyd limped after the two, too stuborn to complain all that much.

"Mr. Kratos maybe we should stop for a tiny bit." Colette said weakly, her friend's suffering was pulling at her all too vernible heartstrings.

Shame that such a trait left the heart so open to steel. Kratos waved the girl into silence with a gesture, Lloyd wasn't as bad off as to need a rest yet, if the boy actually spent half the energy walking as he did cursing he'd be suffering a little less. Still it was not spite, or rather not wholy spite that made Kratos push them this hard. Lloyd had been avoiding him, had been scheduling his watches so he'd not be with Kratos, the mercenary had tried to coax Lloyd nicely, had tried to strike up conversation with the boy to see what was wrong. He'd been avoided, ignored, and once told to go bother Raine. It was obvious that nice wasn't working, so nasty would have to serve. Kratos would offer to take last watch, the only watch Lloyd was going to be able to sit through. He'd get his questions answered tonight, and just to make sure Lloyd would be tired enough that his nighttime habbit of coffee would not keep him awake...

"Try to conserve your energy for this evening."

"Wha- yeah I'm suposed to share watch with Genis huh?"

"You were?" Kratos' tone was innocent, he kept from glaring by the thinist of margins. "Well and good, but that it is not what I was talking of. We will be sparing before dinner."

"We will?" Lloyd's eyes went wide in horror. "No way, I'm so not up to..."

"You can talk, you can spar."

Lloyd gave him a long look, as if to say in a thousand ways no, to pile a hundred protests at the mercenaries feet. Kratos ignored those words though they were as clear as the first words he had heard his child spoken to him so long ago. He continued to walk, ignored the rest of those unspoken and spoken words, picked up his pace, and Lloyd had no choice but to grit his teeth and follow. They traveled til the sun sank to it's fiery end, trailing shawls of color behind it

"I've always wanted to supervise one of these sparing matches of your anyways." Raine said as she took a sip from her water pouch.

She sat on the rocky expanse that covered this bend in the road. This was the last of the twisting path, where dust lapped agianst the feet of stone. The stone would soon become an unpaved path, would replace the gentle grass and be thier road til they got through Hakonesi peak. Then once past the natural gateway they would cross the level plains and their eternally green, wind stroked, and utterly wild pathless paths. He looked forward to it, liked the open region despite the fact it housed some very dangerous spiece of monster and a few mad men who were willing to bond with and have those monsters serve as mounts. The region was a pleasure to travel, all seasons were gentle, harsher snows rarely crossed over the mountain barrier during the winter, the endless drizzle that spanned the latter half of spring was little more then a caress from the maidens hand and even the most pampered of clients could only grumble that it was a slight inconvience. The summer was perhaps the only real dangerous season, and it was only that because a certain plant bloomed that set off his alergies. Because the plains were so gentle it took only a month to reach Luin at the most leasurly pace, and he had plans to go there for a span. Even if the Chosen's journey didn't exactly make such a stop nessicary he could make a number of feasable excuses for that stop and planed to. But that was for the future, he shook his head to banish cloud dreams and focus on the here and now. How bitter the here and now was, or rather the company of the moment. He stared at the woman, her dark blue eyes bore into him, calculating, planing, as always. He at least had some insight of those plans, and a bitter taste filled his mouth.

I bet you would, wouldn't you, the second I draw so much as a bead of blood on the boy you're going to stop it and ban this activity.

Kratos thought at the woman, a silent reply to her words, words he wisely kept to himself.

"Our sparing is by no means to entertain you or your sibling Ms. Sage, and as a request I'd like you to keep a leash on your brothers tongue."

"Genis will behave." Raine promised, a little too quickly for Kratos' liking. Either she had no reason to see why such a chaining of her brother's ego deflaiting coments was nessicary, or perhaps had set up her brother to make such comments. It would be a cold day in Hell before he let some youngsters comments drive him to action, but those words could hurt Lloyd. Might persuade Lloyd to abandon all forms of training. That was not something Kratos wanted, he... charished that time and wasn't going to give it up without a fight.

"Do you know anything of my craft Ms. Sage?"

"I can't say I do." Her tone told him why she didn't, and he nearly laughed at her in scorn.

"Training is very dangerous, we work with live steel at all times so I want you to keep your brother and the Chosen out of it as much as you can."

"Live steel, sharpened weapons?" Raine's voice went shrill with protest. "If you think for a miniute that I'm going to let..."

Kratos forsook his seat upon a boulder, stood, and faced her in unflinching silence as her terade rolled over him when at last she paused he spoke in a cold whisper.

"No matter how sharp you make the quill Ms. Sage there are things it will not cut through. That is the place of the sword, that is the place of my expertise. Do not question it, ever."

Much to Kratos' satisfaction she flinched back from his tone, shamed, thoughtful, or in fear, he hardly cared. So long as she listened and obayed.

"If you had any reguard for his life or welfare you'd at the very least practice with wooden weapons."

"I have a great care for his life." Kratos hissed, hands clenching into fists at his side. "Which is why I teach him how to protect himself with the tools he will use everyday of his life. Never presume that I am indifferent."

Kratos looked past her, looked at the camp that Lloyd and Genis were setting up, already the fire pit was dug and the fuel was layed out to be lite. Noishe lay panting amongst a nest of packs, Colette filling his ears with baby talk and is mouth with pieces of sweetened bread. Happy for the company and the treat Noishe was greedily wolfing down his pre-meal meal. No tents had been constructed, but bed rolls had been left scatered about the clearing, and they seemed lonley desolate ghosts with no one in them. Lloyd finaly sat, waved at Genis, and the small elf smiled, pleased about something. The child pulled out a tattered book, the spin proudly declaired itself as "Genis' Cookbook! Don't write in this, this means you Raine!". Scanning it with sky blue eyes and ran a finger over a page. Tapping something he chirped out whatever they were going to be having for dinner, Lloyd moaned, Colette clapped her hands in glee.

One word crossed the distance, cut through the dwindling day with the force of a knife in his gut.

"Tomato soup!"

Alright two words, but still it wasn't good news, the only ones who seemed happy were Colette and Noishe.

Tonight, he sighed to himself, was going to be a very long night.

xxx xxx xxx

She coud barely follow it, her eyes keyed to seeing flaw could not see the errors. Words that would hold meaning were lost in the ring of steel on steel, obscured as they gained a second and even third meaning. Lloyd did spend a lot of time picking himself from the ground, he was nursing a number of bruises and small cuts by the time Kratos broke it off. Colette had stopped chearing for Lloyd after the tenth fall, Genis after the third, Lloyd had stoped talking after the first.

"Ung Genis could you take watch on your own?" Lloyd groaned as he sheathed his blades. "I need to lie down..."

"Noishe can share it with him." Kratos offered, and the dog, if an animal could, looked offended.

"I will." Raine offered, before Lloyd could agree. Raine did not like the idea of an animal standing guard with her brother over the camp. "And really Mr. Aurion, it's not as if a dog could honestly hold watch. It's an animal for Martel's sake, and the fact that you're only adding to the delusion that it is sentient is not the thing Lloyd needs right now."

"Hurmph!"

Raine turned, Kratos did not posess such a low pitched voice. She was unaware that Kratos, Lloyd, and everyone else was turning to the sound of that voice. Tail tucked into a ball at his side, face scrunched up, and mane bristled Lloyd's dog did not look very dogish as he stared at Raine. Noishe's eyes were brown slits, and the snout was curled into something like a soundless snarl. He reguarded them all, then opened his snout and let out a sound no dog could make.

"Hurmph!"

Noishe found his paws, shook himself vigerously, then padded up to Lloyd. He paused only once to kick a bit of sand in Raine's direction, then taking Lloyd's sleeve between his fangs gently lead his owner to the only red blankets in the clearing. He then proceeded to pull the blankets over Lloyd and curl around his owner and settle for the night. But not before meeting her gaze and lolling his tongue out in something that was not a pant, and had it not been a dog Raine would have sworn Noishe was sticking his tongue out at her.

"mmm Night Noshy..." Lloyd seemed to be drifting off, he absently patted the huge green and silver head.

Noishe's response was a quiet bark and to lick Lloyd on the forehead.

"Perhaps." Kratos said with mockery running through every sylible of his next words. "Things are not as they seem with that one, I would think it obvious after this little demenstration, wouldn't you?"

Raine had no response for that, stared at them both for a long time wondering, then joined her brother, and they prepared themselves for a long night's watch.

xxx xxx xxx

"Raine, colette didn't eat all that much tonight, didn't you notice... I always thought that she liked my tomatoe soup..."

Raine scooped her brother up, smiled at him, thier watch was almost over so it hardly mattered that they talked now, she could hear Kratos stirring in his sleeping roll, he was perhaps shaking off some mercenarish dream or something.

"Do you remember my lecture about human biology and how physical strain, changing enviroments, stress, and natural process can have effects on the metabolism?"

"Yeah, the class where Lloyd asked what a 'period' was?"

Raine chuckled, it was sad how Genis was more aware of certian things then Lloyd was, exspecially on that topic. Still Dirk had promised to educate him on the matter, and there had been no more difficulties so she imagined the matter resolved.

"Yes that day, well travel is taxing physically, emotionally, it drains on so many levels plus with Colette going through her Angelic Transformation now, I'm not surprised that she isn't all that hungry. Don't worry, she'll feel beter soon, it had nothing to do with your cooking. You make the best tomatoe soup you know."

"Yeah!" He smiled, cheered almsot instantly, and that was the true case of his worry really. No one had praised him for his cooking and he was feeling bad because of it. "Lloyd's just weird, and who wants that Kratos' guys opinion anyways? Kratos can just keep eatting grass everytime I make tomatoe soup!" Genis lost some of his glee and grew somber. "I hope Colette feels better though."

"She will, just give it time." Raine smiled, smothed back his hair, though he was a boy and most children his age despised being touched and fussed over he had no qualms about his sister doing so. He liked it when they hugged and talked after dinner, these little fire side moments where they could do that were something they both looked forward to.

"When Colette's an angel, after she'd done regenerating the world, do you think she's going to move back to Iselia?"

Raine's stroking hand faultered in it's motions for only a heartbeat, the hesitance was so slight as was it in her words, and only those with keen ears could pick it up. Genis for all his intellegence just didn't have the wisdom yet to understand why she hesitated for that one second.

"...Of course she will, I can't imagine her living anywhere else."

"That's good, I hope when we're all done we can just all go back to Iselia and have things like they were. Travelings interesting, but... I want to go back home even if we don't have much of one left."

"We will." Raine promised with a smile on her lips, she gently kissed his head. "We will go home when we're done."

"Good, I'm going to wake Lloyd up now." Genis cackled, and Raine smiled, she knew just how Genis was going to wake up poor Lloyd.

"No ice bigger then the first joint of your pinky." She ordered, recalling a time when Genis had made a chunk the size of an apple and pelted Lloyd with it. Lloyd had slithered out of the chair, eyes glazed, and had not woken up til hours later after Raine's lessons were over. That was the last time Genis ever used an ice spell to wake Lloyd up in her class ever again.

"Me?" He laughed and skipped off into the dark to wake up Lloyd in the traditional magi fassion of pouring ice cold water down his back.

xxx xxx xxx

Shivering Lloyd curled against a much weter Noishe. Genis had soaked them both for good measure, and they'd both hopped around the clearing -thankfully not walking Colette- shaking off ice and wringing out water while a baffled Kratos watched. To the man's questions Lloyd had growled something like 'shut it' and dog and owner had scooted themselves as close to the fire as they dared. Sword laying on his lap, Kratos stared out into the night, all but blending in with his black clothes. His attention though did not exactly follow the direction of his eyes. Lloyd could feel the man's scrutiny, his attention, and hung out by the fire until Noishe firmly headbutted him to the darkness. Firmly being lead and pushed by his dog Lloyd was herded to a rock right besides the mercenaries. He hissed a protest, but the glare Noishe gave him made him sit, his dog then laid his head across his lap. No help in getting away there. Still if couldn't be too bad, three hours sitting besides Kratos max, if the man was his normal quiet buisness oriented self they'd say all of five words to each other.

"You've been avoiding me for almost a holy span now." Kratos said the second Lloyd had stopped trying to shove Noishe off of him. "You've been avoiding sparing, sharing watches, and talking to me."

Well there went the hope that he could avoid talking now.

"Have I done something to offend you?"

Damn damn damn damn... Tonight was not going to be a good night.

"Whine!" Noishe nudged him, all but ordering him to respond.

"Stupid dog... I think you planed this!" His hissed to Noishe, who only looked at him expectantly.

"What was that?" Kratos was staring at him.

"Nothing! We should probably you know watch for more of those bug things and stuff..." Lloyd said in a hurried tone. "And not, you know, talk..."

Kratos stared at him, it was a long stare, and it seemed as if something in those eyes broke then the man stiffened and glared into the night.

"As you will."

"Grr!" Noishe glared at him.

"Oh shut up Noishe!"

"If you are going to be that noisy..." Kratos stood, "I will take myself to the other side of the camp where it's a little quieter."

Well if that's what Kratos had planned he changed them abruptly. Noishe stood, snagged the man's belts in his teeth, and with a sharp yank forced the mercenary to sit on the rock right next to Lloyd. Actually he landed -was thrown- on Lloyd's lap. It was then Lloyd learned how nice chairs with backs were, and how not nice rocks with no back rests were. He slid under the wieght, slipped back and landed on his back Kratos falling with him onto his chest. Gasping out a few threats to Noishe, who was looking down at them, tail wagging, Lloyd was effectively pinned by the mercenary and therefore helpless to carry out those threats. Kratos got up, sprung to his feet with his usual cat like grace and turned to the downed adolecent. The man offered his hand, more out of habbit then expectancy that Lloyd would take it. As it was Lloyd was too busy gasping, trying to figure how many ribs were broken, and thinking of how to get even with Noishe, to make himself get up.

"You're getting a flea bath next stream you hear me!" Lloyd wanted to yell, it came out as a gaspy little squeak that ended in a cough, seeing a faint blue glow about Kratos hands Lloyd took a deep breath and ordered himself to talk kinda normal. "I'm fine!" He croaked. "No healing, fine!"

Kratos only stared at him with brooding eyes, then knelt and gently applied his hands over the front of Lloyd's tunic. Cold pierced him, made him cough, and he shivered as he could almost imagine Kratos shifting through his brain looking for what was wrong... He squirmed away, broke the contact off with his squirming and it sent a sharp stab that went from one temple through his brain to pound at the other. That hurt, real bad, he blinked sharply, took a deep breath, and sat up.

"I'm fine." He sounded a bit more like himself though his head was really killing him. The pain throbed in time with his pulse, and was not letting up. "Well mostly fine." He corrected, rubbing at his head with a grimace.

"Whine?" A tongue passed over the back of his head, Noishe is seemed hadn't ment for things to go this way. That didn't mean he wasn't in trouble however.

The touch was back, he felt Kratos pass a hand through his hair, a bitterly cold hand. The pain eased out of him, and Lloyd let out a soft sigh of relief. The swordsman muttered a quiet thanks, and took the offered hand. His legs decided to not like him, and while he would have rathered to stand for a while those rocks looked really comfortable. As he sat Kratos stared at him, the black clad man's eyes thoughtful. He was probably going over every nausince of Lloyd's behavior, thinking his out there hard to follow thoughts.

"I would say, the only thing this has done is make it that we will have to have this discussion. I would rather have you tell me of it on your own, but circumstance has forced both our hands. I dare not leave you alone until you are capable of defending yourself, and I will not be able to hold back my questions any longer if I spend much time in your company."

Oh great, just great. Lloyd closed his eyes, and groaned. He cracked an eye open, looked at the mercenary who despite being concerned was still very imposing in his sinister black garb and aura of power. He was going to kill Noihse for this, forget flea bath, he'd eat burned, over salted, or otherwise ruined human food for a month for this.

"Well?"

"Well what?" Lloyd toyed with one of the buttons on his tunic to avoid meeting the mercenary's eyes.

It was Kratos' turn to sigh.

"What have I done to offend you so much that you treat me worse then you did in Iselia?"

"What haven't you done?" Lloyd snapped, then mentally hit himself for even opening his mouth. He'd not meant to say that. He waited, staring at the button like it'd magically shield him from Kratos' rage. The iselian knew just how touchy Kratos was about respect and his tone and words had been anything but. He half expected a harsher version of a Raineing from the man, and despite himself cringed.

"Explain."

Lloyd looked up, shocked, Kratos wasn't angry? He sounded...pained? Weird, too wierd even for Kratos.

"Wha?"

"If I've done something to offend you this severly then we need to discuss it."

"Discuss?" Lloyd repeated, feeling like someone just womped him over the head with Raine's staff.

"Are you telling me that your dwarven father is as bad as Raine is?" Kratos tilted his head to the side, was giving him a pitying look that Lloyd was becoming all too familiar with. "Certianly when maters of import crop up you talk them over, or do you calmly just let everything sit in the hands of your suposed betters?"

"We talk!" Lloyd snarled, wanting to hop to his feet and storm off, saying that he didn't want anything to do with Kratos after that comment. But he felt weak, his legs were still twitchy from the healing and all the walking he had done earlier. "And I'm not stupid, alright!"

"I never said you were." Came that maddening calm counter.

Noishe firmly put his head down on Lloyd's lap, gave him that warm happy look he always wore. Tail wagging it thumped against nothing but air, and those liquid brown eyes were filled with an appologie and love. The swordsman set his hand between those huge ears and began to scritch, the motions of petting Noishe calmed him as much as anything did when he was really angry. He stared at the sky, the silver lights above, and it was to them he talked.

"I'm not your pet, you've been treating me like a damn dog, trying to leash me to you and I don't like it."

"I have not been treating you like a..."

"Yes, you have." Lloyd snapped, putting more energy in his stroking then was nessicary. "Everytime I hang out with anyone besides you you try to push me away from them! You're trying to control me."

"I am trying to protect you." Kratos said after a long silence had passed. "Your attachments to the Chosen and her friends are dangerous."

"They're my friends, they'e been my friends since I was little." Lloyd hissed, his teeth felt like they would snap he was gritting them together to hard. "And how's being close to you any safer. No one here's emorten... imor... whatever, you know what I mean! What makes you safe, and my oldest friends suddenly not safe?"

"Eight hundred years Lloyd, it's been eight hundred years since a Chosen's group has successeded. The others didn't just give up halfway through, they died Lloyd." Kratos' hand gripped his shoulder, somehow the man had come to kneel right in front of him. "A chosen goes on this journey every fourty some years, do you know how many people dead that is?"

"The tower..."

"Appeares every hundred, regardless if it falls in a Chosen's life time or not. And reguardless of the age of a living Chosen the youngest of that blood is sent to go on the Regeneration. Infants have been sent on this journey, babes in arms." Lloyd wanted to look away, to protest, but those burning black eyes were locked onto him. It was all he could do to breath. "Despite all the holyness ascribed to this journey and all the hopes that the people hold for a Chosen no one from any of those groups save Spirtuia has ever made it back alive. You could pave a path from every seal in the bones and the blood and tears of those who have died for this ritual could be what holds it all together. It is almost fore ordained that they will die, it is best to distance yourself from that pain."

Gathering his courage Lloyd tried to match the intensity of that stare.

"That's my choice, not yours."

"I do not agree with you, and will not follow that path myself... But in your case, for yourself, you are correct. Forgive me for inflicting this pain upon you."

"Just don't do it again." Was Lloyd's terse reply, Noishe nipped him for that tone of voice, but Lloyd hardly felt it.

"If... no when they die in the course of this journey I hope you do not regret your decision."

"I'm Colette's friend, I wont let her die. Genis, Raine, they're my friends, I wont let them die."

Kratos stared at him, seemed to be waiting.

"And despite the fact that you royally tick me off you're my friend, so I'll try not to kill you... I mean not let you die."

Kratos' lip curled sightly, he released Lloyd's shoulder and stood.

"You would need an army to defeat me Lloyd."

"Got one." Lloyd patted Noishe's flank and Kratos chuckled.

"No arguments here, that's by all acounts a very formidable army."

Noishe loked at Kratos and lolled his tongue out in dog like laughter.

Kratos favored the rocks with a brooding stare, and for once Lloyd figured what the man was thinking.

"Despite getting pissed easily, I don't bite, much." Lloyd grinned, albiet wearily. "Normally I get Noishe to do it."

Kratos took the offer as it was ment to be taken, though he did make a point of sitting on Noishe's non-pointy side.

xxx xxx xxx

"No, I wont hear of it, I've waited fifteen years for this book to get in my hands and that's final."

"Could we just read it here then?" Lloyd asked.

The balding wrinkled head shapped forward one inch in front of his face. The teeth, or what was left of them, were bared.

"No, get out!"

The staff went up, a threat that was too familiar. Cringing back Lloyd gripped the hilts of his sword and made a hasty retreat outside to his friends. Colette was leaning on a fence staring at a small windmill like device. She watched it go 'round and round while Noishe sat at her feet following it with his head and made himself dizzy. Raine and Genis were having some sort of talk about history, well that's what Raine's over bright eyes and Genis' glazed eyes told him. Kratos was standing a few feet away from his client, frowning at some wierd block with runes all over it, the guards at the entrence of the gate were in turn frowning at the mercenary.

"What an avaricious bastard!" Lloyd flared, telling them all that he'd failed. But then he wasn't the first, Genis had tried before him, as had Kratos. Kratos had to be dragged out of the room by the guards, he'd gone so far in his threatening to draw blade on the old man. The shrill screams of help and a twang from a well concieled crossbow had hearlded the fact that mercenary's welcome had run out. "He'll hold onto that book till the world ends."

"If this regeneration is not sucsessful then it wont be much of a wait." Kratos growled, his black cloaths still streaked in the dust from the road, or rather the forced contact with it. Lloyd still couldn't shake the image of Kratos arms pinned behind him, legs held up and pinned together by those huge guards, being man handled out of that crumbling shack. He snickered, seeing again in his head Kratos face first in the road, dust boiling around him. It was hilarious considering the composed and utterly controlled facade the man was holding onto now. "Short of breaking in, commiting murder, and stealing the book does anyone have any ideas?"

"We could do that without the murder part." Genis suggested brightly, and was firmly smacked by his sister.

"I dunno, I like the second part." Lloyd cocked his head to the side. "I'm really liking the second part cuz that means we wont have to pay him five gazillion gald for road passes."

"Five million." Kratos corrected, his lips curled into a smile. "Gods I must be rubbing off on you if you're liking the idea of killing that old man."

"You're not the only one who he pointed a cross bow at."

"If we were to say Colette was the Chosen..." Genis offered, looking hesitantly at his sister. No smack forthcomming he relaxed and went on. "I bet If Colette showed her wings to that guy he'd give us the book."

"If the other groups been here then it is safe to asume that they have already told this Koton lies about a false Chosen group, so that 's probably not a good idea." Raine said, and gave the swordsmen a long look like she was contemplating smacking them but didn't quite dare.

"If we had a lot of winged peop- erm angels do you think that Koton would listen to us?"

"Probably," Kratos frowned. "But where exactly would we get them?"

"Colette could... I dunno pray and then they could come?"

"Lloyd angels aren't exactly something that come at a person's beek and call." Raine sighed. "If you had ever read a page of the holy text or gone to church once, you'd know. In the face of your ignorance about something so simple in religious matters doesn't that make you want to study just a tiny bit?"

"No, why?"

"Raine, he worries about how angels get thier clothes on with there wings and how they manage doors." Genis sighed. "I think it's a little late to make him learn it now."

"Really?" Kratos' lips curled, out of all of them he did not seemed shamed at his '_pupil'_s lack of knowledge, only interested.

"Ung and when the tower appeared that speal about a huge angel should of plunked it into the ground..."

"Oh come on, it would have been cool!"

Kratos began to quietly chuckle at that. "That is a sight I would have liked to see myself."

"Kratos..." Colette gave him a look filled with conern. "You worship Martel don't you?"

"No Chosen," Kratos bowed, albiet mockingly, "I do not."

"That explains it, birds of a feather..." Genis muttered under his breath.

Raine was turning red in anger. "But... If... What of the angels then, the Regeneration? It has feasable results, we see the world improve when the Regeneration sucseeds and know that it dwindles when it fails, certainly such logic would sway you Kratos. I can understand Lloyd's dogged denial of the Martel church but with such proof before you a reasonable, cool headed, and rational person such as yourself..."

"I believe in whatever I wish." Kratos shrugged off Raine's protests. "It's a poor faith that needs to confirm itself every other day with orcales and angelic visitations. If I need confirmation all I need to do is look at the world about me and watch it's workings. I know how to look at things properly, to see that which lies beyond the eyes, and there lies all conviction I need. As for the Regeneration... it is a process, a ritual that when followed to completion has positive results. That is all."

"I'm sorry you feel that way Kratos, taht you don't see." Raine said with pure sympathy threaded through her tone.

"I'll pray that you do see Kratos." Colette said softly, looking at the mercenary in pity. "That the light of the Goddess cleanses you. That the sins of your pain, passions, and anger that makes you look away from the light fall away and you are Regenerated."

Lloyd just shook his head, he'd gone through this when he was little from the whole village. From his own experience talk like this made you feel like an ant, like you'd hurt a lot of people by saying no, by picking a different road. He did not join his friends in this, could not, would not. He watched in surprise as Noishe picked himself up from resting by Colette, and silently padded up to Kratos. He sat by the mercenary, stared at Raine, Genis, and Colette, and there was something defiant about him standing against the pity, the gentle coaxing that Kratos change. Before he could think about it Lloyd joined Noishe, looked at his closest friends and felt familiar wrench in his gut. It was just like being six again and facing down Marche, in finding the courage to pull away from croud of people all but dragging him to the baptism and calling on the names that rested in stories that no one knew but him.

'_In service of the Goddess you will sacrifice all excessive passions. You will discard that which is not of Martel, all persons who do not bow to the Goddess, for they are too lowly to be sacrificed. Bow down your head and let the water, the Light, cleanse you of these sins. Join us in Her light, in Her pasture where peace is granted for all eternity."_

_'No!' he thrashed, small teeth sinking into the hands of his captors, small fists pounding on the adults who held him down. 'Luna, Aska, please help! Help me!'_

_'All sacriligous thoughts fall away from this child, flee away darkest thoughts, torment this soul no more with the echoing lies he has been told. To the waters thus we offer the sinner and in his place accept the enlightened one whom shall rise...' _

_'Daddy help! help me!'_

_'By the hand of the Goddess in her infinite mercy we bring light to the benighted, purity to the tainted...' There was a rustle of robes, the ringing of a small gong, and a strong smell of incense drifted over him. _

_'Marche! What the Hell do you think you're doing!'_

_'Tylor don't you dare to intervine! This child has fallen from the light, this has occured by your hand and so it is by mine that I rectify it!'_

_'You have no right!' Tylor roared, a startling counter part to the bells that rang chearily from his boots. 'It is his decision and that of his father's.'_

_'A dwarf, a half man, and a child, none are capable of seeing the corruption, of turning to the light...'_

_'Put him down Marche, call off your people now!'_

_'Take him to the waters.' Marche said coldly, then there was the sound of flesh striking flesh, Marche grunted in pain._

_He found himself in Tylor's protectave arms, being held, a wall of sad and angry eyes boring into him...'_

The same wall he faced now...

Sick, he wanted to get ill staring at Colette's sad eyes, at Genis' pitying eyes, and at Raine's anger. He wanted to cringe back from those gazes. He gripped the hilts of his sword to hide the fact that his hands were trembling. Kratos grimly took a step forward, looked Colette in the eyes.

"You may be the Chosen, and you may be an angel, but you are not a Goddess. Perhaps that is to be your destiny, that you will for a time surpass a mortal's lot and become something that is beyond our comprehension, perhaps not. But know that your goals, your ethos, are not mine nor are they everyone else's."

"I will pray..."

"Then will you accept the prayers of my Gods, Gods that demand no sacrifice save that you wish to freely offer them? Gods that are flawed, that bicker and fight and wage wars across the heavens? These Gods who are not all powerful nor complete, who serve as instraments of peace and war, who are not human, nor animal, nor element, but something inbetween all three? Will you acept the blessing of the keeper of light and in the same breath accept it from the envoy of the abyss? Will you take upon yourself the extreams as well as the middle path?"

"In the Writ there is only one path, that of the tranquil light..." Colette whispered, drawing the path of the mortal a horizontal line across her heart, and then rose and brought that hand to signify the holy guildence of heaven upon that pre-determined path. To call upon that guildance and light to protect herself from Kratos' words

"In my faith there is a path that man and the Gods makes for themselves, and it is the choice of those who live and think to pick which path they want." The mercenary shrugged, they all looked offended. "Do not call upon your goddess to shield and protect me from the workings of my own Gods until you have looked upon them truly and known them as well as yours to be truth. Find some means to get the book I'll be off aways." Kratos turned, began to walk off.

"Why are you here Kratos?" Raine's voice was a challange, it demanded an answer.

"Because I saw a light and I saw three children rushing into it oblivious to the death that hovered about that light."

'_Join us in Her light, in Her pasture where peace is granted for all eternity...'_

_'The Goddess has one path the tranquil light...'_

They looked at him, seemed to call to him, beg him to join them, to make them right. He turned, Raine's call of his name went unheeded. So much for tranquil and peaceful. Noishe padded up to him, rubbed against him like a giant cat and purred into his ear. Grinning Lloyd slung an arm over Noishe's shoulder and while his path was simular to Kratos' it wasn't the same, just a little different. But it got him where he wanted, away from those staring eyes, away from the judgement and from the light. They could read the book without him, after all it was paper and binding, and there were a hundred more interesting things to learn from away from all of that.

Review response:

E-mailed all I could.. since you have no e-mail I know of FalconCrest I'll answer your questions reall quick. Yes there will be side quests, I already started them with the monster on Ossa actually... I don't understand your thing about twelve books actually, was it a game walk through magna thing? If you could clarify that it would help me better understand you. Also not all books are three hundred pages, one of my fav "ColdFire trilogy" was well over two thousand. and as for humor. This fic is a mix of many things, humor is one of the things that I touch up on this fic but the fact is I use so much of everything I have to keep it in the "General" ranking. Hope that answers everything.


	14. Ashes upon the ocean

_Chapter 14_

**Stain glass window**

_To my readers,_

_Hangs up sign reading "Artistic license applied you've all been warned" and whistles innocent tune. _

_Farther on are Magnius and the fall of PalmaCosta. This chapter is very graphic and dark it has earned a Mature rank if you are offended by violence then e-mail me and I will send you a edited version of the chapter or a summary, I will not change the ranking of this fic becasue as a whole the only other really "dark" chapters that will be on par with this one are the Kvar chapters and the Tower chapters. I dub the warning as sufficient enough, if it isn't then say so in your review and I will change the ranking._

_Oh and before you all pounce on me nagging about grammer Lloyd's letter is deliberatly a mess of miss spells and wrong words... you'll understand why when you get to the part in the story._

_Now to answer e-mail reviews on chapter 13, try to finish next chapter for "Broken" finish Krana ficlet and put off my home- I mean work on my ToS works and creative writing "homework"... ;) _

_Enjoy,_

_Kasan Soulblade_

"A cage, filled with the finest foods, the comforts all tended, how many would honestly break the gilded bars and rush into the maw of a predator?" Kratos pointed out, once Lloyd had run out of steam for his anger. "The dark is a animal, a home of demons, Salvation comes from the light of the sun, the voice of an angel. They are absolutes, easy answers, and as a group people like simple answers. Better to have an answer then to ask a question."

Lloyd stroked Noishe, his mind trying to keep pace with Kratos'.

"Is it like having a block of wood, you roll it in your hands and it seems fine but when you cut into it it might not be so nice as it looked?"

"Something like that... You only cover one aspect, which is the fear of what a question could revial... There is more to it, and if I tried to explain it to you the way I was taught you'd get lost."

Kratos tapped a dagger against his knee trying to gather his thoughts. He sat on a rock facing away from the Pass, Lloyd sat cross legged on the uneven ground, both of them were watching the sunset and waiting for their companions to come back from making the aged Koton hand over the Book of Regeneration. Kind of funny really, they were two heretics on a journey to save the world by following a prophecy set by a religion that denied them almost as actively as they denied it. Lloyd chuckled and Kratos looked at him. Perhaps Kratos discerned the thoughts from his open eyes, looked through the windows and read the words on Lloyd's brain, or maybe it was just some other thought, but the mercenary curled his lips in a small smile.

"At the chapel in PalmaCosta did you perhaps see the stained glass windows? Think of it this way, the metal rods that hold and protect the glass are as thick as the truth a line of the 'angelic' writ they represent. Something that is completely true will be a decent sized rod, a half truth would be a half the thickness, a partial truth would be a partial rod. Your question is a rock in your hand, and you throw that rock, what happens Lloyd?"

"You throw a rock at a window it breaks." Lloyd said in a matter of fact tone that implied that Lloyd was quite the trouble maker as a child and did his part to keep the glass blower in business.

"If it hits a rod?"

"Well it it's thick the rock might bounce off."

"The window remains whole?"

"Yeah..."

"But a window with few thick rods, what would happen?"

"I'd fall apart." Lloyd said promptly, and then he frowned, remembering what a rod was supposed to be.

Kratos remained silent, allowed Lloyd to draw whatever conclusions he wanted, after all it was in his estimate that they had at least an hour before the elf professor lost her temper and beat Koton into the ground and ran back to them book in hand cackling crazily. Enough time to make your own opinion and think something through. Lloyd glared at the ground, as if it would help him think, probably for the first time in his life honestly thinking about something abstract without someone who had it in there mind to guild them to the 'right' answers. There were precious few 'right' answers, precious few 'wrong' answers. Right and wrong were a personal opinion, they could be warped and twisted by an individual until they were totally alien to anyone else. There was action and there was judgment of others that ascribed good and evil to a person, and little else. Eventually Lloyd would learn that, and what that fact turned him into would be the greatest test of character then any action or deed that he did in his life.

"Little could stand up to that rock huh?" Lloyd said at long last.

"Very little, but what could stand perhaps is the most precious thing of all. Harvesting it would be to ones benefit, but to do so would be dangerous."

Lloyd understood that, understood how dangerous it could be, and he smiled at least knowing one ultimate truth.

"No offense, but you're weird."

"Maybe I am."

"Like if there was a contest you'd be the king of weird."

"Do not push it Lloyd."

"You'd be like... the wired high king."

"Are you aware of just how thin a skin of ice you are walking on?"

"Ohhh I'm so scared, I mean it's not like you can run all that fast."

Kratos laughed. "As if I need to be as fast as you to pound you next swords practice."

"Well your sword skills couldn't save you from my wraith!" Lloyd bragged, looking up at the older man with a smug smile curling his lips.

"Your wraith?" Kratos snorted, closed his eyes and turned away. "You don't have the capability to hold a grudge for ten seconds much le-"

Opportunity wasn't knocking it was walking through the door and making itself at home. Grinning Lloyd got to his feet, draped an arm companionably around Kratos' shoulders. The man managed to have one second in which to worry as the grip tightened and the other hand fisted and rubbed roughly against Kratos' skull. Snarling the man bent, tried to squirm out of Lloyd's grip, and managed to do so, but not before the order that the man exerted over his hair was totally destroyed. Laughing at the man's totally wild hair Lloyd lowered his guard, was oblivious to the quiet growl that slipped through the mercenary's lips. Crying out in shock Lloyd's arms were pinned an he was given much of the same treatment. Lloyd finally managed to squirm free, countered with a Noishe styled head butt. Kratos stepped back, took the unorthodox hit and was about to deliver a kick to the back of Lloyd's knees to bring him down when someone else decided to step in, or rather pounce in. Both swordsmen went flying, Lloyd found himself pinned by three hundred pounds of dog. Noishe licked him then whirled, pounced Kratos and elder swordsman and dog went a good ways down the path kicking up sizable amount of dust.

"We call that being Noishe'd!" Lloyd called out helpfully, giving the thrashing pile of Kratos and Noishe a wide berth.

"Howl!" The tongue lolled out, this contest was over and Noishe was declaring victory in his dog way.

"Lloyd call off your dog!" Kratos roared, putting his hands around Noishe's skull to keep the tongue from descending.

Lloyd toyed around with the idea of leaving Noishe to do what Noishe did best. But that was too evil. Still saving Kratos didn't mean he had to be prompt about it. He took his sweet time picking his way down the path, and when Kratos' cries began to get choked off with laughter as the tail tickled him Lloyd finally gripped those oversized ears and shoved his dog off the poor mercenary. Poor guy, he was trying to compose himself after all that, Lloyd pulled the older man to his feet, and they both were sent to the ground by a well placed Noishe pounce. A fore paw on each of their backs prevented them from moving too much. Noishe looked at them, considered how best to gloat. The tongue slipped out and Lloyd grimaced, he knew what was coming. Soon enough Lloyd's hair was all in his eyes slicked down with a generous layer of dog drool, Kratos' was sticking straight up after a few wads of hair being playfully tugged straight up.

"Damn it Noishe, let us go!" Kratos growled, trying but failing to get Noishe to let them go.

"There's only one thing to do now." Lloyd sighed, and then cleared his throat. "Help!"

"Certainly between the two of us we can over power this dog..."

"Knock yourself out." Lloyd shrugged as much as he could under Noishe, who was deciding to lie down on his human twin mattress. "I'm doing what I know works... Raine, help!"

Kratos sighed, pillowed his head on crossed arms while above him Noishe pillowed his head on crossed paws. It was going to be a long wait, a very long wait, so Noishe took advantage of the situation, kneaded Lloyd to the proper level of fluffiness and when that was achieved then let out a huge yawn. Luckily for the humans Raine took only half an hour to come, unfortunately for Noishe he hadn't caught more then a wink of sleep before he was firmly driven off with the woman's jeweled staff.

xxx xxx xxx

"Spiritua statue?" Lloyd seemed to taste the strange words.

"All churches have them, it's what we pray to, it's the embodiment of out prayers. You see the carving of Spiritua, the last Chosen who was successful wore a crown of diamonds, in her honor the angels made one of stars in the night sky that we are instructed to call the Crown of Heaven. In honor of Spirtua and the labor of the angels we put on her symbol a diamond covered tiara that catches the prayers as did Spiritia's journey give life to the world and answer those prayers long ago. The prayers of the faithful gather in the crown and the priests make an offering of the prayers during the hour when the suns at it's highest."

"At noon." Lloyd suddenly remembered Tylor's stubborn insistence he be at the temple at that time no matter what.

"Un huh!" Colette seemed pleased that Lloyd was showing some response, normally he'd just walk off during one of these talks. What she didn't know was that the night they camped right outside the pass Kratos and Lloyd had shared a watch and during that watch Kratos had had a very firm chat to him about respecting other people's beliefs. There had also been some open threats about intensifying practice; it was intense and painful enough so Lloyd was being very polite. It was costing him though, he wanted to argue that the Crown was the fallen crown from Aska's head, wanted to if nothing else ask questions. He'd been banned from doing the last, and that was really gnawing on him. Still Kratos had a point, he didn't know how to tactfully ask a question, to gauge if it could be destructive to a fragile faith or not. He was having to go to Kratos with his questions, or rather would next time they shared a watch, for now he listened and that seemed to humor Colette.

"If we take the crown though, wouldn't that be bad?"

"Very." Colette looked solemn. "The crown is a channel; it brings our prayers to the Goddess and the Angels so they can answer them. If there isn't a channel then the Angels can't protect anyone, that's why all the regions outside of the homes of the faithful are filled with monsters."

Lloyd felt like he was going to burst on that one. His house and all around it wasn't crawling with monsters, they avoided Dad's place and him and Dad only went on monster hunts when the wolves would come down from the slopes of the small forested region on the southern edge of Iselia forest. And that was once every other winter or so. Kratos caught his eyes, read the strain of quietly sitting through Colette's open and subtle attempts to convert him, and decided it was time to save him. He picked up his pace, abandoned Noishe to serve as a solitary pack animal, and for a heartbeat gripped Lloyd's shoulder. The motion was over quick, too quick for Genis and Raine who were taking point and talking about something called a quadratic equation to even notice it, and too fast for Colette to pick up on it. That made Lloyd calm, told him without words it was Kratos' turn to go under fire.

"Lacking a channel would be bad, how do you plan to remedy that problem?" The mercenary asked Colette, Lloyd took advantage of that to slow down and join Noishe.

"Yes, I'll replace the alter with a few of my wing's feathers, I'll pray over them so they'll be proper vessels and the priests can use them until Koton gives them back the statue." Colette smiled a pained smile. "It wont be as good as the statue and Crown..."

"I imagine an item bearing the blood of the Chosen along with her prayers would be quite valuable indeed." Kratos' tone grew sympathetic. "Certainly you could do something else though? A lock of hair could be prayed over and made holy, as I understand it the worshipers of Martel in the Hima region sacrifice locks of their hair."

"No, a feather of an angel is the most holy thing I can give."

"I imagine plucking those feathers is going to hurt."

"Oh it can't be that bad!" Colette chirped. "And even if it does all I have to do is put the wings away and they won't hurt anymore!"

Lloyd winced and hoped that Colette was right; all he knew was pulling a hair out from his head hurt, he hoped it wouldn't hurt as bad with Colette's wings.

xxx xxx xxx

Warm hands gently shook him awake. They weren't sword calloused, and no deep voice was ordering him to get up it was time for watch. They were too large to be Genis' and Genis never shook him awake he always used a cold water spell. So whose hands could it be? He made a noise to indicate he was awake and cracked an eye open. Lloyd was startled into full awareness by Colette's worried expression. There were unshed tears in her eyes, and that sight made him sit up and offer his arms to her without a thought to the fact that Raine was up right now. She hugged him, seemed ready to cry. Colette rarely cried, and he was more then just a little worried, he was really worried and no small bit scared. He held her as she trembled in his arms, rocked her back and forth slowly, unaware of twin orbs of dark blue boring into him on the other side of the camp. The world faded away to her shaking in his arms, her hair caressing the arms that he enfolded her in, and the quiet whimpers that were in coming out of her throat.

"It's alright, you're safe..." He reached up and shyly stroked her hair. It was the softest gold in all the world, softer then he imagined silk to be. He bent his head, listened to her whispered words that came out with the whimpers and understood. "No one's going to hurt you, there isn't a Desian in miles, you're safe." He muttered that over and over like some chant and she slowly relaxed.

"I'm sorry..." She whispered over and over again as her terror faded.

"It's alright." Lloyd whispered when she finally stopped apologizing. Lloyd forced himself to stop stroking her hair, he blushed slightly as his hand really didn't want to stop. "What are friends for if not to chase off nightmares?"

She looked at him and smiled. He felt warm all over and knew he was really blushing like heck now. She thanked him, gave him a little peck on the cheek, and went to her bed roll on the other side of the clearing. He stared after her, eyes wide, looking as if he'd been dropped into a vat of red paint. It took a long moment to remember how to breath. He did not even think of how his blankets and tunic were dry from the tears that had stood in her eyes and did not fall, he did absolutely no thinking and just stared into empty space after her. Finally, remembering that he was going to be on watch with Kratos and he'd get chewed out if he was sleepy he figured that he should at least lie down and try to sleep. He did so, slipped under the red covers and closed his eyes, and for some weird reason all he could smell was her scent and all he could feel was a tingle under his hands, the ghost touch of her hair. He got absolutely no sleep the rest of the night. Lloyd lay still and wondered what was wrong, why something as normal as holding her was tangling him up inside. Finally unable to take it he picked up his pack that was serving as his pillow and put it over his head. It didn't help him sleep any, but it made a good shield against all of his weird thoughts.

xxx xxx xxx

"OK I know you don't worship Martel, does your faith have a name?"

"Why do you ask?" Kratos shifted his sword around on his belt. They both were at the tail end of the group, keeping Noishe company, or so went the cover story. What they both were doing was avoiding Colette who was valiantly trying to shove Martel down their throats. Lloyd knew she was trying to 'save their souls' like her faith demanded, but still it was annoying as heck. For the first time in years Lloyd was actively trying to avoid Colette. She'd held out for a week doing this to him when they were little, Lloyd secretly prayed that it wouldn't take as long this time.

"Because… I dunno…" Lloyd shrugged. "I keep hearing all about Martel and all that I guess I'm not religion-ed out yet."

"You are the glutton for punishment aren't you?" Kratos' lips curled ever so slightly. "You know that if I start telling you about my faith everyone else is going to be at my throat for attempting to convert you?"

"If I don't say anything how are they gunna know? Anyway I know you won't try to force me to convert." Lloyd sighed. "I just wish they'd understand."

"They are following the edicts of their faith and are attempting to save you." Kratos rolled his eyes at that then he shook off his humor and became deadly serious. "The edicts of my faith stress free will, they stress a lot that those who worship Martel find abhorrent. There are no absolutes; no assurances if you're looking for comfort look else where."

"If I were looking for comfort I wouldn't be throwing myself against the bars of a cage." Lloyd countered, and Kratos stared at him for a long time, thinking of something Lloyd probably could never comprehend.

"Alright." Kratos said after a long time had passed and they'd walked for a while, drawing closer and closer to the house of salvation. "Let us start with high destiny and free will and work our way out from there. Before any being was ever born the Crafter and Master of the Weave set about making a path for their creations to follow, this is termed as the high destiny."

"Wait a second how could this Creater and Weave person even exist if there was nothing?"

"Did I say there was nothing?" Kratos chuckled. "Do not put words in my mouth Lloyd, there was no 'being' the Crafter and the Master of the Weave are consisted of extremes, they are everything and nothing, good and evil, chaos incarnate for lack of better words. Because the Crafter and Master were consisted of extremes that would never resolve, the destiny that was laid out could go one of two ways. Can you guess what splits the path?"

"Good and evil?"

"No, Martel preaches the value of good and evil, making it absolute, but in my faith it is not. It is between life and death, existence and non-existence, that everything is divided. Good and evil are individual choices, not choices originally set by the higher powers. At first only one item was made by the twin powers, and of all things it was a gem. It had a thousand facets that caught on the light of the Powers that had made it and set off a thousand colors aching across the void. That color was not intended by the Powers, they were angered that a creation of theirs would do something that they did not wish, and in the manner of beings that are controlled by chaos both revered that difference and despised it. So I was in rage and joy, grief and exultation, they meant to break the weave and creation and unmake their work. They raised their hands and within were the keys of unmaking and they set it across the gem as you would set am axe across a piece of wood for the fire. They meant to split the offensive item and toss its essence back into the void. But the higher destiny, the twin path, took that which was once whole and set it upon its back. Half the gem lay upon death and half upon life and the higher powers though they strived could no take the gem back and set I upon the course of that they desired."

"So the path was stronger then the makers of the path?" Lloyd frowned, this was pretty confusing.

"Yes, you could say that I suppose." Raine was giving Kratos a long look, and the mercenary returned it innocently.

"Heh, wow tables are turned. You gave her the glare of death or hanging out with me and now you're getting it back."

"I guess I deserve it."

"So what happened next?"

"Because death is the anti-thesis of life and the gem while inanimate…"

"Antal-Wha? Inanimute? Use smaller words I don't know what the heck you just said!"

The mercenary sighed in annoyance.

"All things, even a rock, strive to live. Even though one path was death the other life, the gem on the side of death did not die. Death changed, became Chaos and Madness, in response to that change Life became Order. Infuriated that again their creation spurned them the Crafter and Master of the Weave chased after their possession, each taking a different path. Master, naturally a chaotic entity, twisted as Death embraced him, and though he remained whole the madness of that path became a dominant part him. The Creator went down the path of Order and changed, split into twelve entities that were part of what we see about us as nature."

"So the order gem is this?" Lloyd waved a hand to indicate the road and the world.

"Yes," Kratos smiled obviously please that Lloyd was following this. While he'd never admit it this idea had taken him a very long time to grasp, his mentor had spent a week explaining and re-wording the story over and over until it had finally sunk in. Either Lloyd was a great deal more intelligent then Kratos had been when he was a child or perhaps Kratos was explaining it in a better way then his mentor had. The mercenary decided that the second option was more appeasing so he'd stick with it. Lloyd let out an impressed whistle and fell into uncharacteristic silence while he waited for Kratos for pick up the thread of his story.

"One half of the great gem became a thing called Nehfilm and the other half became… Sylvarant. As the worlds changed and went down their roads eventually the ropes that bound them began to fall away. There exist a few paths between those worlds or so it is told…"

"The skeleton at Ossa…" Lloyd froze stared at Kratos. "You don't think…"

"I wouldn't be surprised." Kratos gripped the hilt of his blade, a grimace on his face. "Now while I don't know exactly what happened on the other side that allows beings or seeds of Chaos to come to our side I do know that it was a very powerful seed that fell into the heart of our world. The heart maintained order, held all potential, it kept the world in its proper path. But it became tainted with a Chaos seed, a Demon seed. Chaos tried to destroy life and Order, which in its infancy was merely potential. The heart strived to absorb the chaos, and in doing so began a war upon our word between Chaos and Order, Life and Death. From that war in the Heart came Good and Evil, these opposites infused the entities that were once the Creator and made them into Spirits. Origin, the greatest of the spirits took in his hands the Hammer of Godly Thunder, the Flame of Hellfire, and the Clay of the world and shaped the Chaos. Infusing Chaos into everything, forcing the infinite potential into all beings, all to save the heart of the world which could only hold the finite… For without the heart all would turn into nothingness. So things existed outside the Heart and were bound to the Heart by threads of existence, or… mana as your young magi friend would call it."

Lloyd blinked, tried to nibble on the edges of that and wasn't lost so much as over whelmed.

"Because Chaos somehow came into our world the two options that had originally split the world became open to all beings. All options opened and that is where free will comes in. We pick in our lives from a multitude of decisions and actions and words, and that in turn sculpts our path."

"So here isn't just one "light" path is there?"

"No, there is not."

Lloyd felt like his head was spinning; no wonder Kratos had told him there was no comfort! The idea that life was an accident… That everything around him wasn't meant to be, it was rather uncomforting.

"Something wrong?"

"It's a lot to think about isn't it?"

Kratos nodded. "The price of free will is that you have to think Lloyd. If you don't want to there are others who would happily lead for you, make you into something greater then yourself, they'd make you into a part of a higher cause and offer you sanctuary from all the horrors of the world with their promises of salvation and peace."

"But if I don't follow, I wont be greater then me, I'd just be me."

"I guess so."

Lloyd thought about it while they walked. There was a question, not asked but that needed answering. It tied into his stories, tied into what he knew and didn't know. He smiled slightly and made his decision though it wasn't Kratos who asked it. He asked it to himself, asked his question and answered it with a smile on his lips. He answered it to the one man who'd understand, who had heard the unspoken question.

"I never did like sheep."

Kratos looked at him for a long moment and then burst out into rich warm laughter.

Xxx xxx xxx

Colette frowned; toyed with the three feathers she had plucked and prayed over, and stared at the symbol of Cruxis. Three wings jutted out from the ring of order, the wheel of human destiny, and if she had a ring maybe she could slip the fathers in and give the priests something even more special then angel feathers. She wondered for a little where she could get a ring, even as Raine was asking the priests if they could take the statue for the Regeneration.

Suddenly she had it! She quietly slipped up to Lloyd and tapped him lightly when no one was looking.

"What's the mater Colette?"

She whispered her idea and he frowned, looked at the circle with the wings of the three Seraphim and High Guardians.

"I dunno, it'd take me a while if you wanted all those squiggles in."

Colette wished they did have time because she knew Lloyd could do all the angelic writing really well… But they didn't.

"Could you just do a ring Lloyd? A ring that can hold these, but make them stick out like that?" She held out the feathers and he looked at them, picked one up, and frowned at it then the symbol.

"It'll be tricky, I'm not used to working with anything but wood and steel, but I'll give I a try."

She smiled, knew he'd do fine and said so, and he turned a really cute red just like his tunic! Uh oh Raine looked really mad and the younger priest was squirming like he was scared he' be Raine'd. Colette hoped he wasn't going to be Raine'd that'd be awful!

"What do you mean you lost the statue at Thodia geyser!"

"I was on a pilgrimage and… I was so exited seeing the geyser or the first time I dropped it and… I had a dwarf make a copy of the statue for me, he lived a bit north of Iselia as I recall…"

"That's my Dad!" Lloyd sounded really mad, Colette took his hand and he lost some of his anger and looked sad. "What kind of work are you doing dad?"

"I wonder that myself…" Raine shook her head. "Never mind it's not important, I guess we could try to take the fake."

"Will it fool the old man though?" Kratos wondered, though his tone made him sound like he was saying. 'I don't think it will fool the Koton one bit.'

"Oh I know! We can get the real one!"

Everyone was staring at her funny, what did she say wrong?

"A geyser? Isn't that where hot water's all shooting out and stuff? If I want to die like that I'll tell Raine about how boring ruins... ummm…"

Raine turned a not so cute red and Lloyd went really pale.

Lloyd coughed. "I'm gunna go outside and start working on that carving for you Colette."

"We're sorry about all the trouble we have caused you." The temple's Father said with a bow in her direction.

"It's alright." Colette smiled. "I understand, I drop stuff all the time!"

"This may be unfair to ask but it is late in the afternoon and it would be an honor for us if you could conduct the temple's sunset ritual, we would happily give you shelter for the evening…"

"Oh no pro…"

Kratos firmly shook his head and Raine seeing that poked him not so softly with her elbow.

"We'd be honored Father." Raine said with a quick bow to duck under Kratos' scary glare. "I can even help a little with the ritual I used to help Phardia when her acolytes got sick."

"Your help would be welcome." The Father said with a warm smile. "It's time for me conduct confession so I'm afraid we will have to talk after."

"That is fine." Kratos smiled his smile that he'd smiled at her in Iselia, and Colette decided that it did look like he was going to bite someone when he smiled like that. "A word with you Ms. Sage?"

"I'm sorry but I'm going to be attending the confession." Raine said in a sweet voice that didn't sound all that nice.

"Indeed…" Kratos jaw twitched. "Well then, I'll be outside, I imagine my presence is a moral offense to the Goddess anyways."

"We welcome soldiers into our ranks so long as they refrain from killing an only do so in the name of Good and Life." The Father said with a smile still on his face.

"Killing in the name of life… I have never heard a more complete oxymoron." Was all Kratos said as he stormed outside.

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He sat a few feet from the road; he'd seen Kratos sorm out of the temple but thought nothing of it. The guy in there was kinda like Marche, not as dead as Marche, but there was enough of the old priest in him to set Lloyd's teeth on edge. All in all it was probably a good thing Kratos had left, he didn't seem to have all that much patience with the Martel priests anyways. Well that was another good reason for Lloyd to stay outside, he went back to work on his ring, adding little slits where the feathers could be slipped in. He finished it and put it in his pocket and leaned against Noishe thinking about watching the white fluffy clouds roll by. A patch of white, twin white slips popped out of the grass; and Lloyd seeing them paled. Noishe whined, ducked behind him and put his paws over his eyes. Red eyes winked in the suns light, twinkled like the winter's star. Ripping his sword from it's sheath Lloyd considered running, for once in his life he toyed around with the idea running from a rabbit.

"Kreee!" Its crimson eyes widened and strayed up to his hair and a right red tongue poked out from its tiny fangs.

"You followed me!" Lloyd yelped pulling his sword free. At that sound Noishe whined and made a break for it, running in Kratos' direction.

"Hissss…" Drool slipped through that mouth and those long legs pushed of from the ground and like last time they smashed into his face. Unlike last time the thing kicked off his face and then something heavy landed on his head.

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Genis cocked his head to the side as a voice not singing prayers to Martel slipped into the room via an open window. It couldn't be Lloyd could it? Well he couldn't do anything about it if it was, it was a holy time where they were all supposed to pray and ask forgiveness for their sins so Genis was in the room until the ceremony was done. The cries of '_Getitoff getitoff_!' were suddenly cut off when the young priest slipped to the window and closed it. Genis really tried to lose himself in the prayers, to let the enlightened words of the Goddess fill him, but through the whole ceremony he could hear that desperate cry and all he could think of was rabbits. So a slight smile curled his lips for the rest of the prayers, but no one seemed to really notice or mind so he for once didn't get in trouble.

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Lloyd sat at Kratos' feet; cold light was probably freezing his glare into place. Like he cared, that damn rabbit had bested him again! It had even bested Kratos, kicking the mercenary sharply in the rump before fleeing. What good was learning swords craft if a rabbit could beat you up? Kratos' hand withdrew and both swordsmen looked at each other for a long moment. Both thinking about that ball of fluff that had beat them both and made a brake for it.

"Not a word of this gets breathed in anyone's presence." Kratos said at last, pulling a strand of chewed hair out of his eyes.

"Not a word." Lloyd agreed grimly.

They sat, backs to the house of salvation, prayers were sung behind them. They were, both by mutual dislike were not going into that chapel. The decision was not an easy one, almost guaranteed a lecture from Colette later on. Lloyd shrugged it off, trued to fix his messed up hair. What was that rabbit's thing with eating people's hair, it was like some God of sick humor had sicced the damn thing on them.

"Is there some demonic rabit god in your religion?" Lloyd asked, watching for the pair of ears to return any moment now.

"No, but Gnome and Sylph have very nasty senses of humor and I could see them giving luck to that little..." Kratos muttered a few words in a weird language that Lloyd supposed he wasn't meant to catch.

"I can see it now, thirteenth spirit infused with chaos, evil, and a hair fetish, it's minions cute animals that make the victims lower their guard." Lloyd grinned albeit weakly, and was rewarded when the man chuckled.

"Bunny lord of the underworld?" Kratos quipped and they both smiled.

The wind sighed around them, laughed amongst the grass, and Lloyd had to wonder if there was something honestly brushing the grass and giggling at their misfortune. It was spring; the world was decked out in its softest green. The rolling hills about them framed the dust road, made its cry for feet to cross it all the more alluring. Thinking of music… Lloyd spared a glare for the Chapel; the singing was swelling into new octaves that were not so sweet. To better ignore the worship going on behind him Lloyd settled into his fast becoming favorite past time of nagging the mercenary with a hundred questions.

"So just how many stories do you know?"

"More then most would like to hear. And they are not exactly stories per say…"

"Sorry… I just don't know what to call them." Lloyd blushed. "I know they aren't stories, they're really important and explain how stuff works, but I can't think of a word for it past stories because it's not exactly prayers.

"There are prayers; every heart beat is a prayer, a cry against Death and Chaos, defiance against Nehfilin." Kratos closed his eyes. "But there are prayers, formal rituals, but they would depend upon where your essence lies. You see, though we are a part of everything and in turn everything is a part of us and we all strive to defy Chaos all beings have a slanted nature… We have an… element."

"That sounds almost like Genis' thread thing."

"It might be that he is seeing just the edge of a person's element, perhaps even their soul. If so that's no small gift."

"Well if it is then I'd be fire right?"

"You have leanings in that direction." Kratos smiled, reached out and tugged at Lloyd's tunic. "Favored colors are a hint, but a pure fire person would be even _more_ rash. Fire is energy, and most find an easy outlet of energy in emotion, primarily anger, but there would be a complete distortment of judgment when emotion comes into play. It would be to the point a person might abandon an oath, or even personal ideals. You fight and use your emotions to support your ideals and do not forsake them. That trait would rule out fire almost immediately."

"So then, what is it?"

"I do not know, if I figure it out I will let you know."

"Guess you don't know everything after all." Lloyd teased

"I do know one thing," Kratos gave Lloyd a mock stare of death and daggers. "If you continue to mock me I will not continue to tell you what stories I do know, I might even forsake my plans of telling you one every watch we share."

"Every night?" Lloyd's eyes went wide in a interesting mix of happiness, surprise, and enthusiasm. "Oh man Colette's going to hit us with the Martel book if she catches so much of a whiff of this. Not that I really care mind you, I really like your stories, they're the best!"

"I will take that as very high praise then." Kratos smiled, dropping his serious act and relaxing.

It was in that state of relaxation and comradely outside the chapel, it was when the prayers of the Goddess swelled to full volume and devotion on the inside of the chapel, when the messenger came.

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An army was marching to PalmaCosta, an army of Desians. Immediately splits ran amongst the group, pitting the younger members against their elders. Faithful and non-faithful banned together, logic warred against passion, and Lloyd heatedly declared he didn't care what Raine and Kratos did he'd go back by himself if he had to. He ignored their cries for caution, his anger burned their arguments to nothing, and he grimly swung his legs over the loaded down Noishe and looked down at them from his wolf-like perch.

"If I take the road's I can be there in three days, it's got to take an army longer to move then that!" Lloyd was already working off Raine's packs. He dumped those to the dusty road and began to untie Kratos' stuff.

"You're going to die if you go back there by yourself! PalmaCosta has there own militia, they can deal with it." Raine shrilled at him, using her teacher's voice in hopes he'd listen.

"He's not going alone!" Colette snapped, standing besides Noishe she caught Lloyd's hands as he began to free up her stuff. "I'm going too!"

"No Chosen, you, and he, are staying here where it is safe!" Kratos grimly tried to snatch Lloyd from his seat, but Noishe bared his fangs and side stepped the grab.

"I'm not going to let PalmaCosta be another Iselia!" Lloyd snarled, gripping Noishe's mane so hard his fingers paled.

"Being a Chosen means stopping the Desians." Colette hopped up and Lloyd pulled her onto Noishe's back. "I can't not go, it's my holy duty to go."

"Wait for me!" Genis cried out, ignoring his sister's attempts to stop him. Colette helped him up and looked sadly at the pale and trembling Raine. Lloyd pointedly did not look at either of his mentor's, he was brave but not that kind of brave. Finally having the last string undone Lloyd managed to shove of Kratos' steel heavy packs, there was the clink of daggers that told them all just how knife happy Kratos was. With a few words telling Noishe they were ready to go the massive dog turned itself, pointedly ignoring the weird words Kratos was barking after them. Soon Kratos and Raine faded down the road, the whole world became a blur of green with a stretch of tan rolling under them. Whimpering in terror Genis gripped Colette as tight as he could and Colette in turn held onto Lloyd whispering prayers to Martel. Lloyd smiled, albeit grimly, they wouldn't fall, Noishe wouldn't let them. He patted his dog's shoulder to tell him that and while Noishe didn't waste his breath to bark or slow so that his tail could wag. The dog merely looked up at him. That was enough, they shared understanding in a glance and then both went back to watching the road glide under silken paws.

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Kratos roared a few words, smashing his fist into the wall of a chapel. The words were not quite angelic, not quite the ancient tongue that was scrawled upon the ruins of the world, rather some hybrid of both. They came out half hissed alluding to some dark origin before the Light of Martel came and enlightened the world. How strange that a mercenary would know such a tongue, but then there were good odds that it wasn't even a genuine language rather some gibberish like Lloyd's code. Taking a deep breath the mercenary slowly unclenched his fist, seemed oblivious to the thin trails of blood sliding down his knuckle.

"I'm going to kill him." Kratos hissed, a mere whisper, but it seemed even more terrifying then the howled oaths in that alien language. "And I am going to do it with my bare hands!"

Raine would have sworn that the wall of the chapel shivered as the mercenary smashed into it again with his fist. The priests were hovering about the exhausted messenger, forcing him to take in water, and were trying to bind his wounds. Raine joined the priests, helped heal the man's hurts and stayed with him until a dark shadow fell over them all. Shivering one of the priests drew out a symbol to protect himself from the black clad demon. Hardly offended Kratos had slung both her packs and his along the back of a four legged animal that sported a long face and watery black eyes. It towered over her, and it took her a long moment to recognize the animal as a horse.

"Hey, you, that's my horse!" Snarled a fat man in fine clothes, a merchant of some type by his looks, he waddled up to Kratos snatched the reins… and let them go as a sword was pressed against the throat. "What I meant was you could… of course take…" The man babbled at the empty darkness of Kratos' eyes slid over him.

"We'll return it to this house of Salvation on our return; we won't be gone for more then two weeks." Raine said weakly, even as Kratos swung his legs over the borrowed horse and settled himself in the saddle. "It's for the Regeneration…" Raine lost he words to sooth the merchant and stared at the mercenary's bloody hand. Froze at his offer to pull her up. If she didn't take it he'd probably abandon her, and she was suddenly scared to death of the thought of Kratos catching up with the children. Though she didn't like the idea of trusting some animal to carry her…

She liked the idea of Kratos in his animal rage to catch the children without someone to rein him in even less.

She took that hand and he pulled her up, not liking how the warm animal under her and how it tried to twist away. Kratos snarled an oath did something to the animal's ears and the horse squealed in pain and turned itself so it was facing the road.

"Hold on!" He barked, than sharply kicked the horse's sides and they raced down the road after the children.

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Snarling Noishe veered from the road as the sun rose past the mountains, he darted into a mess of bushes and lay down, telling them without words that he was going no farther. Grinning Lloyd patted his dog's heaving flank, muttered a few words of thanks and then poured Noishe a bowlful of water from his water skin and let the exhausted dog try to drown himself in his eagerness to drink. There were no tents, it was too dark to properly set them up, and there was no fire. Lloyd found a bit of mashed bread, and while it wasn't an elegant meal it served, they nibbled on bread under the star light and Lloyd took first watch, Genis would take second, and if Genis got too tired to stay up for the rest of the night Colette would take over till dawn. Wrapped in blankets they slipped under the cover if the foliage about them and tried their best to sleep. Well all except Lloyd who couldn't sleep even if he had wanted to. Kratos was going to honestly kill him, he had no doubts of it, and after Kratos did Raine would heal him so she'd have a turn. He had those cheery thoughts to keep him company all through the long watch. When Geins took over for his he seemed oblivious to worry, trusted in him, they both trusted him, and as he lay down and recalled just what Iselia had been like during and after the attack he began to wonder if they should trust him. He'd done what was right for him, he didn't doubt that, but he was dragging his closest friends into this mess with him. Staring at Genis who stood so small and alone in the darkness alongside the road Lloyd began to understand why Colette had written that note.

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"They camped here." Kratos pointed to the tramped down plants on the side of the road. He scanned the area, bent and glared at what looked to Raine to be a smear on the road. "Good, but not good enough… They're trying to hide their tracks, or rather Lloyd is. They don't have much of a lead, probably less then an hour. If we put some speed into it…"

"Kratos that horse -which may I add you stole- isn't going to live much longer if we push it any harder then we have already. You're worried, I'm worried, but we will be walking if you don't slow down!"

Kratos snarled an oath, at whom Raine didn't care; she'd gotten all of five hours of sleep and was in as nasty a mood as the mercenary. The poor animal was in worse shape then she was. It had all but collapsed when they had dismounted and Kratos had done something to it, she didn't know what, but it had been able to run the next morning when it should have been unable to even crawl. She had asked him what he'd done, his response had been a cold 'you don't want to know' and she really hadn't wanted to know so she didn't ask again. All Kratos had been doing was fading in and out between two moods, anger and grim determination. His anger would lead to him snarling quiet profanities or just glaring at the road till it seemed the very earth shivered from his fury as they went on, the determination when it reared it's head made him utterly mute and utterly inhuman. Monster's had attacked them once. Those insect beasts much like those from a few days ago. All Kratos had done was drawn his blade and while still on horse back had delivered a slash that had nearly cut one of the monsters in half, the other one seeing Kratos baring down on it had wisely fled, and they'd again gone down the road as if nothing had happened. The only difference was that the mercenary's blade dripped black ichor, and that Raine had begun to shake and could not for the world stop.

Only at noon did they stop to allow the horse to eat and to wolf down a few slices of bread. The second she was done eating the mercenary whistled a shrill note, and the horse came up to him on shaking legs. He said nothing, knelt at the animal's side and set his hands which were glowing with that cold light, besides the creature's chest. It made a pained noise and went utterly still, shivered, then pranced in place with a cheer that could do nothing to hide the muscles swollen from cramps and the subtle caving in of the animal's belly.

"What are you doing to it!" She sent out a thread of power and shivered stared at the mercenary in horror. "You're killing it! You've totally warped its metabolism and you're cutting off all of its pain…"

"I don't have time to be kind Ms. Sage, I have no time. All three of those children are riding to death and if I kill one horse to save them it hardly maters to me."

"Palmacosta has a militia." Raine said in a chilly tone meeting the man's glare with one of her own.

"Why do you think that is?" Was Kratos' reply. "Get on Ms. Sage, or walk, it is your choice."

"What can we do, we're only two people?" She whispered, taking that hand and he grimly pulled her up.

"As much as we can," was the mercenary's chilling passionless answer. "If nothing else we must stop them from getting involved in any of the fighting, even if we must drag them out of the ruins of the city kicking and screaming."

"You talk as if Palmacosta is already lost."

"Only a fool leaves a dangerous army at his doorstep without crushing it. Only a madman, and scarce few at that, would make such a massive tactical error."

To that Raine had no answer, so she merely wound her arms around the mercenary and held onto dear life.

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Gasping panting Noishe padded up to the arch of PalmaCosta and all but collapsed on the cobble stones. They got off of the dog, and Lloyd spent a few moments binding his oldest friend's legs in bandages and rubbing his last apple gel along the tortured muscles to relieve some of the pain. Everything was abandoned, all the shops, even the inn. Grunting Lloyd lifted his dog's forelegs, draped them over his shoulders and Noishe walked on two legs while Lloyd took most of the weight and with Noishe's help managed to get him to an abandoned stable. With muttered words of an apology Lloyd wrapped his dog in a horse blanket and Noishe looked up at him, understanding and forgiveness flickered in those warm brown eyes. A sharp nip on the weary dog's pat sent Lloyd on his way, and he staggered out into the bright sun light streets and looked upon his weary friend's faces. They weren't used to making do with so little, they weren't as hardened as he was and it was showing on both of them.

But what was even more horrible was looking at them he could see their confusion, could see they didn't know what was going to happen.

"Guys, I want you to stay here, protect Noishe, I'll… go ahead and come back for you."

"We came all his way and you're telling us to stay?" Genis snapped, drawing his kendama. "If I didn't have to use all my mana to stop those Desian's I might fireball you."

Colette nodded; damn they were going to come no matter what.

"All right," Lloyd nodded; he'd just do what he could to keep them safe, it was all he could do now. "Let's go."

They walked down the empty streets, their steps and the tap of his drawn swords ringing out, echoing back at them. There were a thousand people to meet them when they made it to the square. There must be, all crammed together as tight as they could be. Lloyd sheathed one of his blades, took Genis' hand in his own and mentally sighed in relief when he heard Genis ask Colette for a hand. Just like a child's came of "snake" they made a living rope of themselves, held tight to each other by the hands and pressed through a mess of people. Panicked words, terror filled voices hung over them, and with his free hand Lloyd gripped the hilt of his blade all the tighter. It was like walking into a nightmare, a nightmare that he could not awaken from.

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"Hoooowl"

"Noishe!" Kratos spilled from the horse's back, drew his blade, and walked to the howls expecting little more then a rabid dog to come at him. Miserably Raine clung to the saddle, strained to the edge of her endurance by the demanding pace he'd set for them, and he knew that if she got down she'd never be able to get back up. Walking to the stable he wrenched open one of the doors, and a familiar green head looked up at him. Someone had bound the dog's legs till they looked like the monster that was supposed to inhabit the Triet ruins.

"Whine!"

"Where are they?" Kratos rasped knowing, but not wanting to know, wanting to be told otherwise.

Noishe lifted his snout, drew a square in the air with the tip of his nose and Kratos' heart sunk.

"Raine, tend to the animals then meet me in the square!" Kratos barked over his shoulder, then left the woman to flounder at her tasks. With any hope she'd blotch them so badly she'd have to spend even more time on them and she'd conveniently stay out of his hair. Snarling a few curses under his breath he ran down the abandoned streets, to the square which by now was probably overflowing with bodies as the Desians were want to lure their pray to them by stating they would only carry out an execution then turn it into a mass blood bath. Muttering a prayer to his Gods he hoped that he was not too late to pull the children out of the fighting. For if the people of PalmaCosta had gone to the square and the militia was not fighting them then PalmaCosta was already lost.

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Golden in the sun the ring arched over the startled heads of the Desian officers and sliced through the rope that would have bound Cocao to death. Genis growled, for once knowing that this was right, completely absolutely right, there were no questions for him to answer and dwell over. Lifting his kendama he cast a fire spell, and set the men who were walking to Cocao swords drawn to rolling on the ground in an attempt to damp the flames. It wasn't ten Desian's like it had been in Iselia, there had to be at least forty well trained and armed magi warriors, and they all turned to him and Colette, lips curled into drooling grins as three sheep all but walked themselves to the alter and begged to be sacrificed. Laughing the scared man, a huge monster of a Deisan who would tower over Kratos looked at them and began to howl in mirth.

"You throw babes at me? I expect nothing less of such vermin, such inferior beings who call themselves humans!" He grinned at them, his short tunic and pants strained under the rippling muscles. "You two, incinerate them." He red haired Desian growled at two of the staff wielding men at his side. "The rest of you, what the Hell are you waiting for? Invitations? Get to doing what you boys do best!" Laughing as if at some great joke the scarred man waved at his soldiers; and one of them grabbed a woman who was cringing in the shadows of the Governor General Dorr's building. There were too many people, he was too short, but that long scream cut through the air, cut into him with the force of a dagger. And it was the first of many, as Desian's turned on the race that was half of their blood and with drooling faces began to cut them down. Thoughts normally clear became muddled, as the humans around him began to run it was his deepest wish to turn and run with them, to flee the sounds, the horrible horrible screams. In that, in his fear there was only one difference between him and them. And that thought screamed in his mind, was as loud and desperate as the screams of the dying around him.

_I'll get to Cocao and then run, she can't run by herself_.

"Genis!" Colette shrieked, running alongside him, and from somewhere far away he was aware of Lloyd too running by him, swords in both is hands. Through the confused Desian's pulling away from the mass of fleeing humanity they ran into the ocean of black and were consumed.

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He shoved, slashed, and shoved again, suddenly the press of people around them vanished, the Desian's were running after the fleeing people, setting buildings a blaze, and were too busy to care about the one woman who was to be executed. Genis ran to Cocao, embraced her, and Lloyd managed a slight smile at the sight. He watched, tried o follow everything at once, and all he could see was a mess of black and red rolling across the streets, he could faintly smell the scent of buildings aflame, but it all seemed far away.

"Colette, help him!" Lloyd barked, seeing Genis was trying to help the poor woman stand.

He stood, arms seemed in blood, blades seeped in blood, trembling. He whirled about as a shadow fell over him, looked up into the scarred face of the Grand Cardinal, who of all people had recalled the woman who was supposed to die and had come to see it get done. Grinning, red eyes glittering slits of humor the man who was more beast then either elf or man unsheathed a sword that was almost as large as Lloyd was round.

"I don't think so vermin…" Came a voice that was little more then a soft purr. "I won't let set of little rats take what's mine!"

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"Open the damn doors!" Tylor howled, smashing his fist against the great doors of the chapel. The Desian's hadn't come down the street yet, but they would be here soon enough. The chapel was a secure building, a sanctuary, and the children he had lead and the few adults who had followed now raised their voices in a wild hope that those within would open the door. But they were not heard over the loud swell of voices that rose in prayers, nor could they be heard over the internal ringing of the tower's bells. Suddenly a hand fell upon his shoulder; he nearly turned walking staff in hand to bludgeon yet another Desian to death, but was relieved to see it was just a young woman in purple robes who wanted to talk to him.

"They can't hear you Father, there's nothing you can do, I'll protect you and the children as long as I…"

Nothing! Like Hell there was nothing he could do! He wasn't just going to sit and die like the other priest in the square who had sunk to his knees voice rose in prayer only to be cut in twain by that blood thirsty barbarian! Like Hell he was going to just roll over and beg and let these younglings die.

Like Hell he was.

"The boats!" Tylor roared, shaking the young woman sharply. "The steam ship, do you know where she is docked?"

"Y… Yeah…"

"Come on!" He snatched a child's arm. "Snake!"

And they knew. They linked themselves hand in hand. He looked at her, and she understood, and lead them to the docks, slips of paper in her hands smashing into the first few Desian's that had come in this direction and driving them off. The bells tied to his feet were merely a soft sigh, and were drowned out in the red slicked streets that were alive with screams and moans of the dying.

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He managed to bring his blades around to block the blow, yet despite that his arms were both numbed and he was sent flying. Grunting he landed on his belly, keeping a death grip on his swords though what good it'd do now that he couldn't even feel his arms. He rolled the second he was down, just like Kratos had taught him, and a sword smashed through the cobbled stones less then an inch in front of his face. Grunting he pushed off the red earth, lashed out with a sword and the huge Desian brought his equally huge sword around to block. He staggered to his feet sword pointing at the scarred man's belly, a weak gesture of defiance that set the Desian off to laughing again. The sound though was lost in the crackle of flame, the crackle of fire that swept across the tops of buildings and seemed to have caught in Lloyd's head and turn the whole world red.

"Go to Hell Bastard!" Lloyd shrieked, slamming his blades again and again into the huge man's sword, trying desperately to disarm the Desian.

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Startled by the wild stabs Magnius took a step back, concern flashing across his face for only a moment, then it was replaced with confidence as the three stones in his arm flared to life and gave him more then enough strength. He gave another step, lifted his blade and with a roar, and with one swipe disarmed the red clad rat before him. How fitting, he was already red, but it wasn't the wet sticky red of mashed insides that he liked. That would be easily remedied. Grinning he lifted his blade, readied the strike and brought his sword around.

And all his thoughts came undone by the smallest of things, a small pebble smacked into him, made him whirl and stare at a man in the garb of a priest a young child in his arms, who dared to throw yet another rock! That little disgusting…

"Fireball!" Magnius turned, was knocked off of his feet by that magic using little shrimp. The fire scarcely hurt him. He whipped off the embers and looked at the three worms before him.

And there came yet another rock.

Snarling Magnius advanced across the bloody body strewn square. He'd wring that little runt's neck, gut the priest, and then kill the brats and hag. He licked his lips, toyed with the idea of what he could do to that small woman once all her would be saviors were dead. Decided to have some fun before the last killing, after all he'd earned it. Lifting his staff in a puny defense the priest stood in front of the child, ordered the brat to run. It hardly mattered, he'd kill them out of order, didn't mater so long as they all died. And so long as the woman died last.

And all his thoughts of killing dulled into a red haze of pain as a blade sank into his side, he whirled and with the flat of his hand struck the animal who dared lashed out at him.

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"Lloyd!" Tylor roared, seeing his pupil slam into the cobblestones and not rise. "Damn it, no! Never again you hear me!"

Tylor smashed his staff across the brutes back and watched in numb shock as his oaken staff shattered. It turned, the monster, the demon, in half man form turned upon him and grabbed him by the throat. Croaking out an oath he gripped the jagged remains of his staff, dug them into that huge fore arm, his feet drummed a helpless rhythm against the creature's chest, and stars burst into his vision.

"No!" Tylor heard a girl scream from far away. "Put him down!"

He was suddenly released; he fell limply to the earth, and over him stood death itself, bloodied sword, standing before the Desian. Gasping he turned away, shaking in terror and mentally prayed to Martel to be ready to accept his soul.

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Kratos could easily compare his stabbing of Magnius to the stabbing of a bull. The Desian roared, bucked, lashed out with arm and blade, and so great was the man's strength that Kratos was knocked from his feet. Now a knife and sword stuck out of the massive Desian's back like macabre medals of Honor with dangling red ribbons about them. Crimson ribbons…

"Tend to him." Kratos barked at Raine, pulling yet another knife out from his belt and lifting his sword, ready to finish off the beast before him.

Waves of heat, of fire flowed from around the man. Genis waved a hand, called on the Maiden of Ice as he had in Triet, but the jagged pieces of ice slashed into nothing more then smoky air. With a flash of fire the Desian disappeared. Tears fell from pale blue eyes, a small trickle that was by all means ill suited for washing away the blood that covered her hands, that covered the ground, and would be no aid in damping the fires about them. Lloyd, Kratos mentally snarled to himself, had a Hell of a lot to answer for. Rubbing a wound he had picked up in shielding Raine from a crossbow bold the mercenary looked at his own blood slicked hands. It was nothing new, but for the two who cried it was the most horrid thing in the world. Sheathing his knife Kratos mentally sighed, it was only a matter of time before that "most horrid thing" became common place. He ignored the tears, and knelt by the priest's side, a quick glance showed that the man was out cold but despite being comatose was still breathing as a man trying to regain his second wind. He reached and gently touched the man's bruised throat and shivered at the unnatural softness, and he knew, having dealt death so many times in his life he knew.

"Raine, get over here!"

Futile, it was a futile motion, a desperate motion that defied the death he saw before him.

She brushed past him, little more then an orange blur in his stinging vision. He blinked, banished the tears and whirled on Lloyd who was just coming around. He was as responsible as the Desian's in this slaughter, and was also responsible for dragging Colette and Genis into this. Kratos would give him absolute Hell for provoking this fight, but not now, now was not the time. Grimly he walked to the red clad child, ignored the painful bruises that covered both of the boy's arms and the multitude of cuts, and dragged Lloyd so the boy was standing. Gasping in pain, looking like all he wanted to do was pass out Kratos refused to give Lloyd that luxury. He tightened his grip on the boy's arms and was rewarded with a small gasp of pain. He sharply shook Lloyd, seeing the boy waking up he shoved, and the boy tripped over his own feet and collapsed with a moan.

"Get up." Kratos hissed, his eyes blazing.

Lloyd looked up at him, tears in his eyes. Like hell the boy had any right after he had caused all this to happen!

"Your friend is dying." He whispered with a deadly calm.

Lloyd's eyes widened, he staggered to his feet, brushed past Kratos and ran to Tylor's side. Gritting his teeth so not to let lose his full rage Kratos sheathed his sword. There were voices from far away rolling over the smoke and fire, half elven voices and human voices, the people of PalmaCosta, the city guard, were coming to fight at long last. All the Desian's had abandoned the square, in their mad blood lust they had run amongst the streets leaving bodies and fire behind them, and like rats they would be cornered in the alleys and exterminated. That however was not his fight.

"Is everyone alright?" He looked to Genis and Colette as he spoke; the dying priest's gasps made a mockery of his words.

Colette nodded, and Genis lying besides some woman Kratos did not recognize could not even do that. The young child was crying, as any who with a soul should do. Not having much of a soul Kratos could not cry, and he wasted no time dwelling on how such a thing was sad.

"Well?" He snapped at Raine, she looked at him in anger and with tears running silent paths down her face she shook her head.

"I brought him around and healed him as much as I could, he can talk but he won't last for long."

The Chosen let out an empty moan, the tears came down more fiercely, and Kratos mentally kicked himself for being the cause.

"Go to Tylor." He ordered Colette, then went to Genis and knelt. "You know him?" Kratos said to the old woman, indicating the elf with a curt nod.

"We're old friends…" Cocao gently rocked the boy back and forth. "He saved my life, fought the Desian's all by himself. Then the Chosen and swordsman came to him and fought against the army..." She looked around with confused sad eyes. "It's like the tales and so unlike them isn't it?"

Kratos had no answer, grunted, and stood. Kratos was definitely tasteing his own foot in his mouth now, and that vile after taste was in all probability the gunk between his toes. He owed Lloyd a hell of an apology if what the woman said was true.

"He told us to stay away, told us not to come…" Genis hiccupped into the old woman's embrace. "He didn't want anyone to get hurt, not us, not anyone, he didn't want to fight and I cast a spell…"

"You did the right thing…" the old woman whispered, stroking that silver hair. "They would have done this anyways, they've done it before and we expected no less. You very well might have saved many human lives even though you had to kill some Desian's to do so. And it will be a long time now until their leader comes back, I might even be ten years before this ever happens again…"

What a pale, sad, and utterly bitter, comfort that was. Shaking his head he went to join Lloyd and the fallen priest. He owed Lloyd an apology, and he'd pay part of it by being there as the young man's closest friend died and offering what little comfort he could.

Xxx xxx xxx

"I'm sorry… I never meant for this to happen!" Lloyd was shaking, yet no tears were running down his cheeks, he was unable to cry, he'd never cried since he was very young.

"Meant or not what has occurred has occurred…" Tylor smiled weakly, stroked that cheek with a trembling hand, though he could do precious little else. The tiger boots were now red with blood and black with soot, the bells still chimed when as he stirred ever so slightly. "You did not… cause this… he wanted… Catling… would of any…"

Lloyd nodded, took the hand that had touched him in both of his own.

"Take care of him… my little one…" Tylor entreated Colette, who was now holding his other hand. "Go… needed elsewhere… steam boat…"

"I'll go." Colette whispered around her sobs.

"I'm sorry Father Tylor, thank you for what you've done for my Brother, and my pupils." Raine whispered, bent and kissed the man on the forehead and then taking Colette's hand in her own walked away into the nightmarish city.

Tylor only could smile at that moment, and did so, though the pain was Hellish.

"Tell me… of Syhin and Aska…" Tylor croaked to Lloyd, eyes sliding shut.

"Once upon a time… There was a man named Syhin and he held all the stars… One day Aska came to him and asked Syhin to give the stars away so that the moon maiden, the one he loved would no longer suffer…"

The hand that had gently been squeezing his own, to tell Lloyd that Tylor was awake, went still. Lowering his head Lloyd let out a soft whimper, cradled the hand to him though no life whispered beneath it. Strong hands gently pulled him away from the priest's still form, and for the first time in almost fourteen years Lloyd leaned against someone else and cried the first of his burning tears.

Xxx xxx xxx

The clean up took to little time, less then five hours. The guardsman picked through the deceased to find hints of identification though there was often so little left behind that only a handful could honestly tell who had died. Names, guesses really, were taken and written in the Book of State, a text that when Dorr's time passed would then be penned into the history books much as any other tragedy was. It would become a remembrance to the living, and when the living whom had seen it died, it would be a fact for students to learn in the great university. As went all tragedies of the world.

Kratos sighed; he'd left Lloyd to what little sleep he could garner. It was nearly midnight, they had talked, or rather Lloyd had cried, and he was just now barely able to persuade Lloyd to sleep. Smelling the reek of the battle field upon him Kratos had slipped outside to the bathing chambers and now feeling a little better stepped into the common room. He almost killed the men; it was tempting, but decided against doing any actions that would lead to having to take another bath.

"Get away from there!" He barked, and the priest and Neil flinched but wisely did not knock on Lloyd's door. "What the Hell do you want?"

"This is Mr. Irving's current…"

"He's sleeping." Kratos hissed. "He's had a Hell of a day. I repeat, what do you want?"

"I must speak with Mr. Irving on the matter of great delicacy." The bird like priest said in a soft voice. "I am afraid I can only talk to him or members of his famil-"

"I'm his father." Kratos sent a look in Niel's direction that promised death if he was contradicted.

"Really, you look rather youn-"

"What do you want? Get to the point or you can discuss this to the paving stones outside!" Kratos snarled.

"This was left for him by Tylor." A box was presented, a decent sized box at that. Blinking Kratos took it and the lid on top rattled, making him think of a certain box in Triet. "I have done my duties and now I return to my slumber Martel's blessing…"

"Wait, you meant Father Tylor, didn't you?"

"If he were a priest his personal objects would have been given to the Goddess." The man said coldly. "He has defied her will too many times and has already been buried with the civilians who died in the attack."

"Defied!" Kratos roared his rage plain for any to see.

"He disrupted the noon ritual, he wore the blood of the corrupt upon him, took a life instead of doing what was proper, and…"

"He put his life on the line to save those children!" Kratos' voice had dropped to a deadly hiss.

"Martel would have saved them, or shown them ultimate salva…"

Kratos thrust the box into the hands of a startled assistant to the governor general, and Kratos descended on the priest bloody judgment written on every line of him. The man was physically dragged from the hall, roughly thrown to the floor and grabbed by his ankles. Ignoring the looks of mortification and insult on the few patrons in the common room Kratos dragged the man by the ankles outside and threw him into the middle of the street.

"I'll do worse to the next priest who dares say that in my presence!" Kratos roared, then threw a fireball at the man's fleeing back, just for good measure. "Bastards!" Kratos hissed, whirled, and looked to see Niel giving him an apologetic look only a few feet away.

"We tried Mr. Aurion, we honestly did, but the Voice over ruled us."

"Is that why you are here?" Kratos said, once sure he wasn't going to wallow in the pleasure of cussing out the stupidity of the church.

"Not in whole, Dorr wishes to honor the hero's with a celebration, and would like Mr. Irving to speak, if that is acceptable."

"I'll give you his answer in a day before the celebration." Kratos spit out the last in a tone heavy with disgust.

"We must not look behind." Was all Dorr's assistant said in parting, offering Kratos the box. Not feeling all that civil at the moment Kratos took it and stormed off to a lone table in the common room. In the shadows of the room he sat and mulled over the callous nature of those with power, his mind wandering similar tracks for many long hours.

Xxx xxx xxx

I had been an accident, he'd stood and accidentally bumped into the box and off came the lid. The lid had clattered against the floor, and with a sigh he had picked it up and moved to set it on its proper place. He had blinked stared at the piles of papers, the pair of belled boots, and length of rope. He reached, his hand having a will of it's own, and he pulled out a boot that jangled at his slightest touch. Numbly he sat with it in his lap, one digit stroking the edge so that the bells rang their soft cheerful notes. She came down the stairs in the morning and found him like that, stroking the boot, his mind elsewhere.

"I don't know what to do with this." Kratos said his voice horse from not drinking in almost two days. "They came at midnight with this, all of Tylor's worldly goods in this box and I should know, I'm supposed to know… but I don't know what to do."

Raine came to him then and took the boot out of his hands and set it in the box.

"You don't need to know Kratos, it's not your place."

"But it is!" Kratos flared. "He's my son damn it and I should know…"

"I'm sorry what happened to your son, I'm sorry he died, but Lloyd is not your son. You are allowing the tragedy of the moment cloud your judgment Kratos, you need to calm down."

Kratos closed his eyes, lowered his head and took a deep breath.

"I still should know, do you know?"

"Know what?" Raine slipped the lid over the box.

"This will hurt him, seeing this, is it best not to let him look at this?"

"I don't know." Raine said at last. "But that isn't our place, and since Dirk is not here it is Lloyd's decision to whether of not he opens it or not."

"How are Colette, and Genis?" Kratos asked, in an effort to change topics. And almost by acident scooted the box closer to him.

"As well as can be expected… considering," Raine gave him a long look. "You were going to hurt him in the square, could you tell me why that is?"

"I thought he did it, I thought he started it…"

"And you were going to punish him, isn't what he saw punishment enough?" Kratos nodded, lowered his eyes. "I guess you see that now you have had the chance to think."

"Stop scolding me Ms. Sage, I am no pupil of yours."

Raine snorted, he heard her stand but did not look up.

"If you're going to act like he is your son, then at least make some effort into acting like a descent parent and be adult enough to deal with his rejection when the time comes. Go to sleep Mr. Aurion, you'll be no good to us half dead."

"They want to do some celebration. They want him, and the rest of us, to make a speech."

"It's expected, the living are supposed to look ahead and move on with their lives, so instructs the writ of Martel."

"So calls the shepherd to the sheep who bleat in terror as the wolf walks off with bloody fangs and a full belly."

Raine said nothing, merely left him alone with the box and his thoughts, her disgust with him a near physical thing. I was nothing though, compared to the disgust he felt with himself.

That disgust only deepened when after she had left he opened the lid and looked upon the contents of that box yet again.

Kratos picked up what looked to be a scroll, the thing was thick, yellowed, with signs of encrouching age. He slid the red ribbin between his fingers, the ribbon that bount the scroll together, and watched as it practically unrolled itself at his touch. Paper spilled into his lap, paper covered in fadding words. Ashamed for accidently opening a dead man's property Kratos gently gathered each piece smotherd out the ribbon between nervious fingers, and lay it on the table so he could reroll it. The words written in childish hand and baring dates, lept at his weary eyes, on whole the thing resembled some type of diary. He wondered for a few moments why Tylor would leave Lloyd his diary, but then considering how Tylor had left Lloyd everything else he owned it was not too much a surprise. One piece of paper with a corner folded down defyed Kratos' attempts to go into place, annoyed he pulled it out to smooth it out, and forgot to breath.

_Mr Marche wanted to make us drawe angeles so we'd think aout Mertel even when we're ar home. i asked Ms. Phardia if i could look at the angelse book in her housse and i did just like Marche told us too, but the angels all looked really boroing playing dumb ol harps so I made up my own. Mr. Marche was mean, he didn't like it, but i thought you might."_

Undernieth was a roughly humanish figure. It was wearing black blocky robes and sported a pair of blue wings. A multitude of multi colored (wings?) somethings ran all along the being looking much in his opinion like spikes. It was a riot of conflicting colors, sporting spikey hair that was every color, perhaps more remarkable was what the angel held in it's hands... It held a length of red, a sword that had a star on the end of it's hilt. By looks of it the picture had been glued undernieth the writing, but time had weakened the glue and Tylor had slid a threading needle on the upper edges to keep picture and words attached. Gently stroking the parchment Kratos looked and found the date. Lloyd would have been eight when he drew this, in the winter of his eigth year. It wasn't bad for an eight year old's drawing. On impulse he set aside the paper and looked at another, and as the realization of what all those scrolls were he forgot to breath. This wasn't just the curtosy letter, a quick note and well wishes. It was the physical embodyment of a childhood. Whole days were detailed, told, little things and large things, nothing was left out. It went beyond being a series of letters and notes. It spoke of simple things, of catching fish and whirlwind runs with ill shaped dogs, it was life, a child's life, that had been sent loyally every season's change. It had started when Lloyd was eight and continued until last autumn's harvest. The winter letters had not been sent, could not be sent, for there was no one to send them, for on the day before the eve of spring a light had fallen from heaven, and from that light came angels.

"…from the light of heaven came down the angels and the angels then took up the Chosen, and through the trials they let her pass, till at last each step a crimson pain then she became beyond all pain. Taking the Pure One's hand in their own so did the angels who guided her through raging flame, disquiet winds, they bathed her in tranquil waters of peace, till at last she ascended to the light. And from the light, now shone through her come the Regeneration of the world."

Words from the writ of Martel, the bleating of sheep in their cages, he no longer could tell which. And there was one young falcon ill suited his cage who threw himself against the bars. What would come of it, what could come of it? Salvation? No, no that. Regeneration? Hardly, to break the cage was to break or impede the rite Regeneration.

He should tell Lloyd, should wake the boy up, present the box and all it held and let him decide. Kratos stared at the grey that would hearald the sun's true coming. The coming of the true light, the light of the angels that guided the world. He could not find it in him to wake Lloyd, could not find it in him to say or do anything. Still there was perhaps something he chould do, there was a need he felt he could fufill, it was in the face of that need he found some energy to stand. Taking the box in hand he thought it a sad thing that one mans life could so neatly fit inside.

xxx xxx xxx

He felt cold, tired and cold. Noishe lay besides him, rested that huge furry head on his shoulder, so the cold wasn't physical. It was inside, a cold hurting place in his chest. He stroked Noishe's mane absently, whiped away the few tears he had cried on his dog's chest, and rolled over as the sun hit him in the face. He blinked, surprised that Kratos wasn't in the room with him, but there were hints the man had been here. The bed across the room had been made, the edges of it's making though were slack, and strangest of all there was a box on the bed. Curiosity spurred him to get up, though he didn't quite feel like getting up that nudge was enough for his legs it seemed. Rolling over he squirmed past the still sleeping Noishe, wlaked past the thin rays of light that had spilled into the room around the heavy curtain and went to the small wooden box. For a second he thought of Triet, but those fears were banished when he saw a note on snow white paper sitting on top of it.

_Lloyd,_

_Tylor left this for you. I have no right to recomend any action so I leave it to you. If you need me you know where to look, and if you can not recall where then Noishe can lead you_.

Underneath in a strange flowing style that was more curls then anything else were two letters. Kratos' initials Lloyd guessed. Almost as an underscoring there ran a length of chain wond under the letters. At the end of that chain was a key, a key that would open a door that lay half hidden in the shadows of an alley. He took the key with a shaking hand, stared long and hard at the box, and for a second almost pulled back the lid. He found that he didn't have the courage, not to do it alone. Sliding the chain around his neck like he would a pendent Lloyd stood and walked out of the room, his mind a jumbled mess.

The stairs were not many, he slipped down them, ignoring the looks his rumpled clothes and unkept hair got him. He hardly cared at the moment. Habbit, more then any want, guilded him to the inn's dinning area, he blinked in surprise when he saw Genis eatting a solitary breakfast. It was almost like in Iselia, the first day they met, where Genis was sitting by himself and everyone was avoiding him because his ears were pointed. Total past echo thingie Lloyd thought to himself, a small smile touched his lips. He took the seat across from his best friend and Genis looked up surprised, then dropped his gaze into the mess of waffles he was eatting. The silence was horrible, it nibbled on him and made him feel sick. He wanted to say something, anything, but he couldn't. He blinked aware of a shadow on the tabble, he looked up expecting Raine to have come down at last, Genis looked up too and both of them paled as the woman in purple -the assassin!- stood over them. Lloyd stood, grabbed his sword, but she wasn't doing anything just staring at them.

"I'm sorry..." She whispered in her strangely accented voice. "I'm really sorry."

And she turned and left.

"What was that about?" Genis muttered more to himself then anyone else.

Lloyd wondered, having no answers he let it go. The silence fell again, he let it, used it to gather the courage he needed.

"They brought Tylor's stuff." Lloyd whispered, staring at the table. "I... I don't think I can go through it alone."

A small hand took his own, he looked up, stared at Genis with red streaked eyes.

"Then you wont be alone." Genis said firmly. "You wont be alone."

xxx xxx xxx

Every letter had been saved, every note, every page, it was all in order and kept in excelent condition. Staring at the papers Lloyd felt his hands shaking. Lloyd of course had saved every letter, fighting long and hard with his Father on that score. Dad hadn't liked the fact that human writing was in his house, that Lloyd had wanted to keep every page. Long and hard they had fought, untill frusterated he'd raised a hand against the dwarf. The pain and rage in Dirk, he'd never forget it, never had he been scared of his father save on that day, and though he had been shaking from his terror he had not stepped down. It had taken a month after that for either of them to even start talking to each other again. A mounth of stony silence, for all intents and purposes moving in with Noishe, and doing his tasks with scarcely a word. It took a month for Dirk to give up, and perhaps he only gave up because on the tail end of that mounth he had found Lloyd curled up around some maps.

Lloyd had thanked Genis for staying with him and strongly suggested the elf go somewhere else when Genis had shown signs of being uncomfortable. He was alone now, held a belled boot in his hands, stroked the edge and listened to the soft whisper of bells, and in his mind heard children's laughter, his laughter. It was around noon when Lloyd gently set the boot where it belonged besides it's twin, and forced himself to go to his packs. He rumaged for a piece of paper and unable to find ink he opened Kratos' packs and found a half full bottle and a few well protected -or rather wrapped- feather pens. He meant to write a letter explaining to his Dad what happened, a note that would go with the box when he sent it back to Iselia. He couldn't even hold the pen steady...

Gently he set aside the note, the pen, and ink and stared at nothing for the longest of time. Genis, Raine, and Colette, had gone to the chapel to pray, to attend service to the fallen, they'd come to him telling him he was welcome. He must of said no, or perhaps hadn't answered and they took that as a no. He faintly recalled thier words but could not recall his response. He should probably just lie down, should rest, he'd never felt so tired before, but the idea of staying in the room alone made him go cold all over. Yet there was no where else to go, in times like this he would have gone to Tylor to help clear his head, to just have someone to talk to. There was no one though and... He stood, paced the confines of the small room, pointedly not looking at the box. Something thumped against his chest as he walked, it was annoying, he pulled at the thing around his neck and ran the chain between his fingers. He did have someone, he realized. Not knowing how he should feel for remembering that, Lloyd stared at the key, allowed it to spin as he held the end of it's chain. He closed his fingers around the silver as the light caught off the smooth surface and hurt his eyes. He slid it under his shirt, and blinked back the blurriness that _must_ of come from the light flashing into his eyes.

Who would care of know if he left the inn anyways? They were all at the chapel anyways so it wasn't like he was going to be missed.

For a moment he toyed with the idea of going to the chapel, of talking to Raine, Genis, and... Colette. Certainly no one better would know what he was feeling then Colette, they'd both been so close to Tylor. But the idea of the chapel, the services, of hearing again and again that it was Martel's will. Sickness gathered in his gut, knawed on him, disgust that he was different, so different that he could not go to his oldest friends with his pains. Lloyd let the key slip through his fingers, felt the chain slide between his gloved digits then gently wound the chain in his hand till he wheeled the key up again and it was balanced on his first finger and thumb. He stared at the air in front of him, he could wait outside the chapel, wait to talk to Colette then. But Colette had Raine, Genis had Raine, they had all the priesthood, and Martel, and the angels, they'd be alright...

Gripping the key Lloyd made his decision.

xxx xxx xxx

The door was left open, Kratos had done so to let Lloyd know he was inside. He sat at the kitchen table, head resting in his hands, eyes closed. His fingers of their own accord dug into his skull, half kneeded half clawed at his temples to soothe the pain. Alone the ghosts of his past whispered about him, a woman's voice a childs laughter. He wanted to scream at them, tell them to go away, and he hated himself for that want. Thier echos that lived in this house were a sweet torment, and it was a thin comfort he had that he could not hear thier screams in these walls. Right now he'd take all the comfort that he could.

_How am I supposed to help him when I can't even help myself_?

The ultimate riddle, it had been gnawing on him ever since he'd left that letter.

_I shouldn't have even bothered, he's not going to come, he has his friends to go to and... I'm less then that to him, I'd be a fool to think otherwise, to even delude myself that I am the lowest on his chain of friends..._

He looked up, startled as the door opened. Looking utterly worn, exhasted, and in agony, Lloyd slipped inside and blinked owlishly about. He couldn't see in the darkness as well as Kratos, not that Kratos needed to see he knew the layout of his home as well as he knew the sound of his own voice and the dry echo of his own thoughts.

"Over here Lloyd." The mercenary tried to smile, though the gesture was half dead on his lips.

Lloyd stared at him, and Kratos became painfully aware of the dust that clung to him. With all the time he could have spent some of it cleaning, but...

"I took an unintentional nap." Kratos said in way of explaination.

"Oh..." Lloyd shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortable, probably asking himself why he'd come here.

A wind sighed through the house, the wood creaked, whispering memories tugged at him like a child's small hand. Whiping his face Kratos stood, walked across the wooden floor till he stood scant inches from the young man. He drapped an arm over Lloyd's shoulder. Both swordsman had thier answers when they looked at each other, they both knew what the other had gone through, both could feel the stinging bite of loss still fresh in them.

_How can you help him, you can't even help yourself..._

We shall help each other.

"Let's step outside for a moment."

He gently lead the young man to the garden out back, half leading half supporting, even as the young man did the same for him.

xxx xxx xxx

A bonfire burned, in the heart of PalmaCosta there was a fire. Names of the fallen guardsmen were read there deeds of valor fell from thier leaders mouth with such force that even the hardest hearted were moved to awe of the god like stature these once normal men attained. The civilians who lived such simple lives filled with hope, devotion, and joy that no one present could not feel a twing in thier chest as thier gentle presence was now suddenly lost to the world. "The world itself must greive the goodness of these men and woman who were taken from us in our darkest hour." Said Dorr, he said that and a hundred other things a hundred other praises were spoken. And turned, twisted, all to the cause of turning agianst the Desians, defying the Desians, continuing the fight. The fallen were fuel not for some great pyre, no thier forms were lain into the bussom of the earth and thier spirits restedi n heaven, it was thier lives that were fule, thier deaths. Fuel to the fire of outrage, anger. It was catchy, the hearts of those about him seemed to burn with anger, and he wondered why he himself was not caught up in it.

Then he had his answer.

Kratos, had held him while the rage ran through him, while the grief had twisted his guts and made him howl like an animal. There was no reprimand for showing his grief, no whisperes to hush. He had worn his grief out in the weeks time til he felt numbed inside, it had felt bottomless, endless, but it had ended and left him cold and tired. He was still tired, a little cold, and those things served as a shield against the man's words of passion. Yet that was only a part of it. He could see the power of this man, not the physical power, Dorr was a skelitaly thin man and his flowing robes of state did nothing to hide that, there was a power in the man's voice. A power to his words, and seeing it, he could even more extract himself from that power. He was angry, he wanted Magnius' head off of his shoulders, but he knew Tylor would be giving him an earful if he wallowed in that. He could almost hear the priest -despite what the church said Tylor would always be a priest to Lloyd- laughing at all of this. He could hear a string of playful whispered jabs at the formality of all this, could see Tylor rolling his eyes and pointing out where Dorr was exagerating. That was to say nothing of how funny Tylor would find it that this thin slip of a man, was yelling out on the top of his lungs and flapping his arms that lost in robes of state resembled the wings of a bird, that they were to go to war.

"One good gust of wind and we'd lose the Governor General..."

And while others cried and raged he found himself fighting down a few chuckles as in his head the dry littany of playful sarcasm and posing continued. There were times when he had cried, when the children's names had been read, there were times when had been angry, when they had announced Tylor on the list of civilians stating only one priest had fallen in the attack. But there was one time when he'd been beyond angry, nearly raging, and if it hadn't been for Colette's hand over his he would have stormed up to Dorr and punched the man in his rage.

When they dragged a weary and exhasted Cocao and made her speak of her horror, her fear, her pain.

When they made Cocao into a... a... he didn't know what it would be, but it really pissed him off that they'd use her like that!

Then it was thier turn to speak, thier turn to go forward, and where Raine, Genis and Colette stood he remained seated. He felt eyes on him, Dorr and Neil were looking at him, they saw he wasn't going to go up. Dorr made a slight jerk of his head, comanded him to get up. Lloyd only looked away, ignored the slight tug Raine gave his arm, then finally met the gaze of the Professor.

"They want heros, I'm not a hero Professor."

Raine nodded, accepted his decision, and lead her pupils to the platform. Not wanting to hear anymore, not thinking he could take it Lloyd stood, someone who was sitting on the cobblestones could take his chair if they wanted it. He made his way from the plaza, left the bon fire and the people by it to stumble around in the darkness. It seemed funny how in his wanderings he stumbled upon Kratos and Noishe, the mercenary was leaning against a weapons shop stroking the dog's head. Noishe was of course purring up a storm from being petted, but Lloyd was getting used to that. Suddenly Kratos stopped petting, looked up, his hand closing over the hilt of his blade. Seeing it was just Lloyd, the mercenary loosed his grip and relaxed, as much as he ever did anyways.

"I'm surprised you left." Kratos said quietly, after the silence stretched between them for many minuetes.

"I couldn't stay..." Lloyd sighed, leaned against the same building, he pointedly did not look into the window or look at the small over hanging roof, becuase if he did he'd hear bells, he'd see that fake tiger's tail. Pain at his loss, remembering his loss, made a fist tighten around his throat. Anger stirred in him, it was a tired anger, but it managed to shot to the surface. "You know I could blame a heck of a lot of this on you! Everytime I try to do something I used to be able to do I... I didn't have to think about all this confusing junk! I could just get caught up in everything and now I can't!"

There was a long silence where Lloyd could feel Kratos' eyes boring into him, picking through and reading him like Raine would read a book.

"If my greatest sin is making you think then I have gotten off lightly in this life. But if it disturbs you this much then by all means feel free to not think. That too is a choice, not an admirable one, but it is still an option."

What could he say, that he wanted to not think? What kind of coward, what kind of jack ass, would that make him?

Lloyd closed his eyes, flinched at Kratos' truth, cringed at his own behavior. He felt like Raine was yelling at him, yet Kratos hadn't even raised his voice.

"I.. I'm sorry..."

"You don't like being alone. Thinking, questioning, makes you alone until those around you either see or decide to ignore what you are seeing." Lloyd opened his eyesand blinked as Kratos' sympathetic stare bored into him.

"You went through this didn't you?"

"Yes, you might even say I go through it now." Kratos' lips curled into a bitter smile as he looked at something far away. "You should go to the inn, it is late to be wandering around and you need your rest."

"What about you?"

"I shall be by in a bit." Kratos looked to the heavens. "You are not the only one suffering from a restless mind this night."

Lloyd nodded, not knowing what quite to say to that, decided that he was tired and that if sleep would come it might help.

"Sleep well Lloyd." Kratos murmurred, leaning against the shadows of the building and for all intents disapearing into the dark. The only sign that the man was there was a glitter of light of the hilt of his blade, it flashed once like a rouge star.

"Yeah... same to you..."

There was no response, for all Lloyd knew the mercenary had melted into the dark and disapeared. Shrugging Lloyd went back to the inn, to the suite rooms that the Governor-General was paying for, all in honor of the Church, his small way of aiding the Regeneration. So tangled up in his thoughts he was unaware of black brown eyes watching him from the dark. Following his every movement.

"You will get your answers Lloyd... All too soon I fear..." Kratos stroked Noishe's head, and the dog looked up at him, the human emotion of pity on his canine face.

xxx xxx xxx

"Thank you for comming at my summons." Dorr sat at his horse shoe desk, Niel, a woman in dull brown, and three men in dark blue uniforms, sat with him at the horse shoe table. There were five chairs in a straight line that turned horse shoe into a "D" shape. Favoring Kratos with a vile look the man in steel plate armor clanked to the sole empty chair in the official's table and sat.

"Allow me to do introductions." Niel said, standing, Dorr gave a swift nod and the assistant smiled slightly. "High Comander Pherun of the city guard... Comander are you alright?"

"An... accident." The guard hissed, rubbing his side still favoring Kratos with a death glare.

"Indeed..." Kratos didn't smile but Lloyd had a hunch that there was just a hint of one in his tone.

"Hmm.. Well the Lord to his right is Sir. Asgarr head of the boaters guild. That is Mrs. Rais current head of the arcaic House of Lords, her husband is ill of late and could not make the trip from his estate. Across from her is Lord Westler head of the architectual guild. And by Lord Westler is Seraph Voice Markus. You all know Governor-General Dorr Lord of PalmaCosta and myself minor Lord of the mapping guild as well as Dorr's second."

"And by that little inclusion we all know where the map that will be in this meeting comes from don't we Neil?" Westler said with good humor running through his ragged voice.

"Hugely funny Guild Master." Neil grumbled.

Noishe barked, thumped his huge tail against the carpeted floor and Dorr scowled.

"Must this animal be in here?"

"He's my dog." Lloyd snapped. "Where I go he goes because last time I left him out of my sight your guards tried to kill him."

"Lloyd..." Raine nudged him and the swordsman sighed.

"I'm sure it was an accident Govenor-General Dorr sir, but still..."

"Of course." Neil nodded. "It would be a shame for such a magnificent... dog... to be killed. Ah I forgot... would you so kindly introduce yourselves?"

"Hi, I'm Colette Brunel..."

"The Chosen!" Markus bowed as did the whole council.

"Umm yeah.. that's me!" Colette blushed and slid into her seat.

"I am Raine Sage, teacher of Iselia."

"A fine village..." Dorr said, seeming to groap in his mind for something nice to say about Iselia. "It is as self sufficent as ever I presume?"

"Much to I imagine all the Guildmasters' hopes otherwise, yes." Raine sat down and Dorr smiled at her.

"Well siad Ms. Sage, and I imagine your words will bring howls of woe from every hopeful merchant that will brave the scalding sands of Triet's dessert and attempt to sale thier wears."

"It's a good way to trim the overweening pride of the guilds, a market of goods that will never open up to them."

"Interesting stance Neil, I imagine your father would not like it." Dorr siad and Neil flushed. Dorr's gaze flicked to Genis and the small elf flushed.

"I'm Genis Sage... I'm Raine's brother..."

"We hardly expect someone your age to hold down a craft or job Mr. Sage." Dorr said in a comforting tone, he then slid his gaze over to Lloyd.

Lloyd saw the recognition on Dorr's face and there was a tense silence as Lloyd for all intents and purposes lost his tongue. Unable to even think much less speak he felt himself growing redder and redder. Raine opened her mouth intending to save him, but Kratos stood.

"This is Lloyd, my apprentice, part of his oath that binds him to me is that I forbade him to speak to any potential clients."

"He is... strangely dressed for an apprentice..." Rais murmurred, pulling his glasses to the bridge of his nose.

"Custom of the village Valek, where I hale." Kratos answered smoothly. "We are both trying to grow acustomed to PalmaCosta rituals and niceties."

"Valek?" Neil whispered. "In the wilds by the Tower? Goddess that place is so dangerous it's uninhabbitable!"

"It is possible, one must merely be on thier toes."

"Do you think Valek would be interested in opening comercial channels with PalmaCosta?" Dorr asked, smothing his beard.

"We take an even more issolationalist stance then Iselia and only open the paths to our town once a year so that those who need to leave may do so."

"Ahh" Dorr looked disapointed. "Well we have more pressing matters to go over." Dorr said. "If you could fetch the map whose orgins we shall not delve into too deeply we can get on with it Neil." The aged General said with a slight quirking of his lips.

"Sir." Neil saluted and stood, a hint of red about his cheeks.

""I hear the people of Valek are hethens, this is no great sin on your people's part Sir but now knowing of the Goddessand knowing the love of your people must be great..." theVoice began.

"I have no love of my people." Kratos said coldly,and the aged priest cringedat the ice flecked tone.

Neil returned,unrolled the map on the wall behind him and by way ofa few nails and a hammerpinnedit to the wall.Dorr cringed at the racket, wincd as his wall was given a few new holes in it. He nodded to the armored man who took up a pointer and firmly smacked a forested region a house of salvation on the edge of a beach.

"This," the armoed man began, "Is the barbaric Desian's headquarters. Using the army we plan a full assult of these walls. If we strike here.. and here.. We pin them against the mountain and ocean, they'll have no where to flee and they will be forced to fight us, exspecialy if we holdthem ina seige. Unable to get suplies they'll eventually starve and like maddened animals rush out, it will be an easy route as we will have full suplies and all the funds of PalmaCosta behind us."

"What about the people in the ranch?" Genis growled, "you honesly think the Desian's are goign to feed them during an attack?They'd all getkilled!"

"That is where you come in." Neil smiled at Colette. "Certainly the Chosen will be able to slip in with her elite guard and free them before we get intoposition. Thus the people of PalmaCosta can deliver a massive blow to the Desian's, aid the Chosen of Mana on her quest, andavenge the fallen whilst saving the captives."

"Completely out of the question." Kratos snarled. "Our prioriy should be the seals notthis war."

Raine nodded. "I'm sorry but we can not, dare not, forsake our journey for the seals and abandon the Regeneration."

"The writ of Martel states that the Chosen must seal the Desian's, it is her sacred duty." The Voice pointed out calmly.

Colette opened her mouth to speak but Kratos shook his head.

"Send your own men, you have themcan train them, they are expendable, the Chosen is not.If she were to die in this war the world dies, we dare not take that risk."

"They have Chocolat." Dorr said loking at Genis and Lloyd and watched as both boys went pale. "They have takn her and a whole goup of faithful ona pilgramige. That is the final outrage the final action against us, I have sworn it, but to those who are so close to her... I thought you wold like the opratunity to be a part of the rescue of that unfortunate girl, and to advenge the death of Tylor."

"We're going!" Lloyd and Genis said simutaiously.

"Lloyd-" Kratos began his tone like ice.

"Genis-"Raine's voice grew loud.

"You are not going!" Both adult snapped.

Neil chuckled. "You two sound like parents scolding thier children are you two perhaps engag... epp.." The Asisstant culed in his chair as Kratos favored him with a death glare.

"We will gladly take you assistance young Magi and Swordsman." Dorr siad with a wan smile. "Thank you, all of PalmaCosta thanks you."

"Thanks only add a few pretty lines at the bottom of a grave." Kratos snarled under his breath.

"I'm going too." Colette snapped. "It is my duty to seal the Desian's away and abandoning it would be abandoning all of Sylvarant."

"Which is why we..." Kratos began

"Dare you chalange the choiceof the Chosen?"the Voice sounded agahst. "That is not the ways of the Goddess..."

"I am no the sevent of the Goddess." Kratos hissed,standing. "This is your choice Chosen?"

"Y...Yes..." Colette gulped, shakinga little, at least until Lloyd took her hand and looked defietly atthe black clad mercenary.

Kratos locked gazes with not Colette withbut with Lloyd.

"Fine." Kratos stood. "If we are to be moving with the army then we best pack..."

"Our army will be going the discret way, we were hoping you could take the roads, make a spectical of sorts."

"A decoy..." Raine frowned.

"A diversion." Dorr correted smoothly. "I'll send one regimine with you, all you have to do is make a show of going to the Pass. My men will then coninue toescort a fewpeople who will pertend to beyou past Hakoneseso you can slip off the main roads, Neil and the comanders will meet you at theranch and then we'll go through all the details of the attack and rescue then..."

"Daddy!" a little girls voice cried out in joy. The council smiled indulgenly as a blur of pink and blond hair darkedbehind the table and the Govenor-General was nealy knoked from his chair. Chuckling the man picked up the little girl and playfullytossed her up and caught her.

"Kilia, sweety you are suposed to be with your nanny this afternoon!" Dorr scolded affecionatly, setting the child on his lap.

"You were doing important stuf and I'm supposed to be here!" Kilia pouted. "how'm I goin to be a good General Govenor if I'm not here!"

"So serious and ernest." Neil chuckled. "A good sign for the future if I ever saw one."

Dorr made a face at his secondthen turned his atenion to his little girl. "It'sGovenor-General and if you ever take Daddy's job you would be called a Governess-General."

"Yes Daddy." Kilia smiled, setled on his knee. "I'll be a Governess-General when I growup."

"So ambitons." Rais grinned.

"Hush Mrs. Rais." Dorr growled, running a hand through his child's hair. "Let's not fill her head with nonsense now."

Raine smiled at the child, and Kilia cheerfully smiled back.

"Hi Misses pointy ears! My Daddy's the most important person in the whole wide world did you know that?"

"Is he?" Rainechuckled, having heard every child say that for years. "Aren't you lucky then!"

Kilia giggled, and began to talk with Raine and Genis, and even Colette acting every inche the slightlyspoiled nobleman's daugher, charming and chearful and spreadin both making the problems of the moment fade away.When Lloyd moved to join his friends Kratos caught his eyes, shook his head and Lloyd mentally sighed. Henow was trapped acting as Kratos' student so he hadto obay him while they werein PalmaCosta at least, but it wasn't only that which made Lloyd walk to the older man's side. There was the slight palness about Kratos' face, the light of worry that glittered in the man's eyes,and it was the hopes that Kratos would explain it those things. Lloyd's hopes were in vain however, or Kratos kept his own council, and brooded while Lloyd stood besides him. When the others left and the council was ajourned the Voice walked up to Lloyd, his silver tipped staff tapping was mufled by thecarpet.

"The possesstions of Tylor were delivered to youyet I have recieved word that you have attempted to send them to Iselia viathe churches resources." The staff lifted,the tip tapped his nose. "Our orderis nota delivery service."

"I paid the priest and made a donation." Lloyd said coldly. "And I swearif you don't put that staff down..." Lloyd growled.

The priest did so, startled by Lloyd's threat.

"You should show the church more respect young man." The Voice hissed. "Or I'll excomunicate..."

"Go ahead." Lloyd growled. "I only respected one man in all of you damned church anyways and you turned him out, so it's not like I have any reason to care anymore."

The Voice gapped, he had brandished the ultimate threat upon this upstart and the boy hadn't even flinched.

"The blessings of the keepers of light Luna and Aska upon you humble preist." Kratos' said cooly from the shadows. "As well as blessings of the envoy of Choas he of theBloodied Eye, may the dark be clear to you so that you may travel the paths of light."

Paling as the sacrilige, he'd be no paler if he hadcaught the two "mercenaries" eating children's souls in a bloody rite he crossed himself and began to walk out of the room.

"Father," Kratos' lips peeled back to flash a toothy smile. "Plarust Decie-deci tisek rosin ust genials."

The priest went red, sputtered, and looked ready to hit Kratos with his staff.

"Remember father, your oaths of non-violence?" Kratos said brightly.

Snarling a few profanities the man stalked off.

"Come on I want to look at Neils' map before we go."

Kratos walked back to the table, where Dorr and Kilia still remained, startled by the quiet mercnearies re-appearence Dorr stared at the man, put a protective arm about his child.

"If I may be allowed to study the map that Neil has offered?" Kratosasked with a polite bow.

"Go ahead." Dorr shrugged. "Come Kilia, let's go look at the miral by the guard for a bit."

When they were alone Lloyd shifted closer to Kratos.

"OK what'd you say to that old windbag?"

"Hmmm?" Kratos stared at the map, eyes and thoughts far away.

"What'd you say to the priest in that wierd language?"

"Oh that." Kratos shrugged. "He insulted me by challenging you, so I rubbed his nose in how unholy we are then just for spite I said something rather graphic about him in angelic."

"Come on Kratos!" Lloyd whined. "you're having fun making mewonder aren't you?"

"Some." Kratos admited with a chuckle. "I said 'may a hundred ticks nest inyou genitals'."

Lloyd whistled in apreciation of that insult.

"I was going to add how that would be an improvement but he stormed off." Kratos' lips curled. "He annoyed me."

"If that's _annoy_ remind me never to tick you off completely!"

Kratos chuckled, bowed, then grew somber.

"Are you sure you want to do this Lloyd?What you saw in Iselia, even here during the attack, is nothing compared to the horrors of a ranch."

"I have to stop this, I have to protect those around me, and fighting the Desian's will let me do that."

"You will kill them all?" Kratos said cooly his one so distant, he might as well be noting the sun was shining. "All the half elves?"

"All the Desians who hurt others." Lloyd siad, seeing the test for what it was. "The half elves who don't hurt other people why'd I bother them?"

"No matter what you see... don't forget that... Don't disgrace me by forgeting that in your rage."

Lloyd blinked, stared at Kratos.

"How'd what I do disgrace you?"

Kratos merely turned and walked out of the building. He heard someone come up behind him, and saw Dorr and Kilia. The look Dorr gave him told him he wasn't welome, so Lloyd bowed and left. He had the feeling something was watching him, an he turned and Kilia waved, smiled, but the smile didn't quite seem to reach her eyes. Laughing at himself for being so supid and parinoid Lloyd smiled at the child and just as he was about to step out lookd up, and the angels amongst the ruins of a city stared back at him andthier still faces not touched by grief made him shiver. They all looked so dead, somber, and utterly dead passing judgment upon the suffering living.

Creepy winged people...

Why was he the only person who felt like that? OK dwarven vows, honesty Lloyd, he scolded himself, why am Ithe only _likable_ person who feels like that?

Then he had his answer.

It was because he was the only one who asked, who qestioned the angels, who thought that they might not be beautiful because some priest said so.

"Stupid quesions..." Lloyd grumbld, rubbing his head because it ached. "Why do I have to ask and answer them? Why can't Raine, she's smarter then me? Why not Genis, he's_ twelve_, and he's smarter then me? I don't want to do this alone, why me?"

He remembered Kratos yapping about different types of intellegences in Triet, maybe Raine and Genis' intellegence didn't let them ask the type of questions he was asking.

Yeah right...

"Keep dreaming Lloyd." he muttered to himself. "While I'm at it I want a new set pair ofswords, maybe a magically enchanted pair that spit out firelike the dwarven warriror Larion used to use, Noishe needs a new coller, Genis would be so happy with a library that could magically float along behind us while we travel and I'd love some way to make Raine quiet next ruin we run into..." Lloyd grumbled as he slid down the stairs and joined his friends.

"Lloyd what's wrong?" Colette looked up at him, and a sickfeeling gripped Lloyd's stomach, he couldn't explain, she of all people wouldn't understand and it'd hurt her too.

"Nothing's wrong, I'm fine!" He smiled, and was startled when Raine looked at him in concern even as Genis and Colete did not. From as far as he could be from them but still be amongst them and eha everything Kratos met his eyes and understanding passed between them. Kratos nodded, then his eyes slid to the lone hilt on Lloyd's sword belt. When Magnius had teleported off he'd taken Lloyd's word with him, Lloyd blushed he'd fogoten that. "Umm so you think we enough time to do some supply shoping?"

"We'll be leaving tomorow morning." Raine said, her eyes boring into him wierdly. "I'll admit I need a new staff..." Raine showed off the two holes in her weapon. "I'll go with you."

Kratos glared a Raine and Lloyd sighed in his head, he was not going through that again!

"Cool Professor, let's go." Lloyd considered the rail, then decided what the heck. He slid down the rest of the way, and Colette giggled, called him silly. Noishe barked, waged his tail, and jerked his snout at Kratos. Laughing Lloyd nodded, gave Noishe the OK, then with a parting pat left his four and two legged friends in the plaza.

"Mr. Aurion, if you'd keep an eye on Colete and my brother at the inn until we get back." Raine said in parting,jogging to catch up withLloyd who was alreadya goodly waydown the street.

Kratos probably grumbled somethin about not being a baby sitter, but no one head it becauseNoishe slid behind the distracted mercenary and a familier wiggle was startingon the tip of his tail and crawling up.

"Run!" Lloyd yelled, grabbing Raine's arm andfollowin his own advicehalf dragging his startled teacher down the street. Raine looked over her shoulder as they departed to see a wiggle take Noishe's ears. the long legs bent back, Kratos seeing her attention on something turned. Too late!Kratos was thrown acorss the stones by several hundred pounds of eger dog.

"Lloyd!" Kratos roared, Noishe's head descended and the hair was being licked. "Get back here!"

A crowd of people swirled around themobscured the sight of Kratos being Noishe'd.It did nohing to hide them from the roars of anger or to obsure Lloyd's laugher.

**Review response (to those whose e-mail I couldn't find):**

shadowddwolf: Yes I plan to go to the tower in "Shards" then after that I'll put up another story taht runs from after the tower to the tree, then yet another story that goes from after the tree to Origin's seal, then at last all the ie quests, the final battle, and an alternate ending/epilouge thingie. Check my profile for more details!

FallenStarAngel: (For some reason's e-mails not working... :(

Thanks, I plan on sticking with the travel as I can use it as an excuse to torture- (I mean build upon!) my characters personalities and add in a tone of dynamis. I'm such a fan of the randome skits that popped up when I walked around that part of teh fic is going to be the funnest for me cbecause I'll be able to makup as many as I want! BTWThat rabit's going to be a running gag for this fic... I just can't help it, I like it to much to let it go!

Lloyd still does drift, he's fighting it, but Kratos hasn't been pushing it yet, and he will before things finally get resolved. It's not thatLloyd doesn't care for his friendsor is picking Kratos over them, but the fact that the mercenary is issolating him from them will become even more apparent as time andissuesgo on (One of the main reasons will bedisscussed in this chapter) .

Thanks, I was a little iffy about doin the sight thing, I'm glad I haven't let anyone down with it yet!

"Heheh, Tomato Soup.Â XD" indeed, more evilness by me!

Hmmm... I've seen religion as an extream, I've seen it forced upon people who are hesitant, I've seen it (and this scares me to no end) applied to everything, to every decision, put in every topic. So I have a lot of examples in my past to draw upon for this. Matter of fact I'm suprised a myself for even talking about it so openly in this fic. Hopefully I continue to do so in a mature manner and pay attention to both sides of all situations, though for the sake of not offending too many people I'm gunna tone it down some.


	15. magnitude

Chapter 15

The first Ranch

Magnitude

_To my readers,_

_Been listening to the Tales of Legendia sound track... (Makes sounds of pure joy) I swear you PS2 owners are so lucky... Sometimes I think I should of got a PS instead of a Game Cube. Dorr and all that good stuff up ahead. Major changes to Dorr scene, had Kratos talk more then Lloyd, Oh and if readers want to offer alternant summaries for this fic or titles (even if it's already titled I'm not thrilled with too many of the titles) I'll probably swap your suggestion with what I have and I'll make a point of giving you credit on the beginning of the chapter you've named. _

_BTW the following note isn't for all of you, just the insulting reviewer whose comment I deleted, no matter what I've tried (shift 8) and the few codes FairyV gave me asterisks and most symbols will not transfer over from my computer to the fanfic account. So if you would kindly not bring it up again, I'd appreciate it._

_Kasan Soulblade_

"Begin," Kratos lifted his blade and Lloyd nodded, unsheathed his swords. It was weird fighting like this, now there was Raine and Genis and Colette and all the guards from PalmaCosta and the people who were going to pretend to be them as an audience. Kratos did not charge, this was aggressive combat training, they were letting the defensive sit for a while so that Lloyd could actually do something besides hide behind his swords when they got to the Ranch. Lloyd jumped delivered a two handed over hand swing with his lone sword. Kratos side stepped the attack, the blade bit into the ground, Kratos stabbed at his throat, but Lloyd turned the energy behind the leap into a roll, he rolled forward so all Kratos' blade edge hit was his pants.

Still Kratos had drawn a little blood with his stab…

Cursing the Iselian got to his feet and fast, good thing too cuz Kratos charged. The man delivered a swipe that honest to God screamed through the air it was so fast. Lloyd stepped back, and the blade whirled around, changed hands and came screaming just an iota not as fast, in an underhand slash. Lloyd wasn't as stupid as to try blocking it; he gave the mercenary as much room to deliver his slashes as he needed. Now, while the man was tensed up before he began his next slash! Lloyd stabbed with his blade, but Kratos gracefully hopped back, kept his arm to his side in what Lloyd now knew was a mock full force slash pose. Smirking Kratos tossed his blade from one hand to the other, not impeded by his shield Kratos was doing that a lot, swapping sword hands and overall being a show off. Lloyd knew he was supposed to go after Kratos, after all this was an attempt to hone his fighting skills but Lloyd hesitated. Chase Kratos he'd get creamed or let Kratos chase him he'd get creamed, not a pleasant set of options. He scuffed his boot across the sand and then an idea came to him, smirking he spun his blade in his hand, a taunting little challenge. The mercenary's eyes narrowed, never in his experience had Lloyd ever turned down the opportunity to charge him, to show he could beat him in a head on fight. Slowly Kratos came forward, he was watching Lloyd's arms however, no his foot, so he missed the first few hints. Delivering a sharp kick Lloyd sent an arch of sand in the air, Kratos hissed something in that weird language of his, covered his face with his free hand and staggered back.

"Ha!" Lloyd delivered a low chop with the flat of his blade aimed at the Kratos' legs; Kratos' blade thrust down and blocked the blow. He spun his blade; forced Lloyd's up with his and held them in a lock then with a wrench of his arm disarmed his pupil. The sword was pointed at his throat, and while most duelists would have acknowledged this as a sign of defeat it was a signal indicating that they were going to take up the second phase of their training. No rules save one -well two if it counted that Kratos wasn't to kill him but that went unsaid in all their matches- Lloyd had to keep fighting until either Kratos had delivered three hits, Lloyd had delivered three hits, or Raine broke it up.

"Hold it!" Lloyd croaked, holding up a hand. "I call one hit as already made."

Kratos frowned, lowered his blade so its tip pointed to the ground.

"I acknowledge no hit."

"Not me on you, you nailed me when I rolled." Lloyd pointed to his torn pants that had a thin trail of red running down his thigh.

"Ah… I thought I pulled that hit."

Which was as close as Kratos ever came to making an apology to anyone, Genis whistled in shock and the guards who were going to be playing "Kratos" and "Lloyd" frowned and began to talk amongst themselves. Probably taking notes on how they talked back and forth to each other so they could keep the act up once the real Kratos and Lloyd left. It was kinda creepy; they were making their own impostures now. Lloyd shook off that thought, now was not the time to be thinking about weird stuff.

"I acknowledge the hit." Kratos lifted his blade, but only to check and see if there was a bit of blood on it. If there was the dust was too thick about it to see. "Do you wish to get it healed before we continue?"

"It's not that bad." Lloyd grinned. "Just a scratch, not like you'd ever get a good hit on me that could honestly hurt."

Kratos chuckled at the bravo, seemed to crouch ever so slightly, his blade weaving through the air in front of him like a snake. It was going to be hard as heck to run past Kratos and get his sword, the man wasn't all that much slower then Lloyd when they sprinted, and that sword had one heck of a reach… But who said anything about running? Lloyd hopped back from the first slash, dodged the thrust by putting even more distance between them, then finally ducked under the high slash and hit the mercenary in a flying tackle at the waist. Kratos was so surprised by the Noishe styled move that he lost his feet, they landed in the center of the road, and Kratos abandoned his sword gripped Lloyd's wrists and kicked off the young man so that the momentum of Lloyd's tackle sent him flying. Gasping the swordsman landed almost on top of his sword, not the best way to get it but it worked. Grinning he snatched up his blade, staggered to his feet even as behind him the mercenary rolled over and pushed off the earth with his bare hands.

"I call hit!" Lloyd crowed, taking Kratos' answering snarl as a yes the Iseilan grinned. Now it was his turn to get even, Kratos' sword was a goodly distance away. It went even farther when Lloyd summoned the silver light along his blade and sent a wave of energy down the road to smash into the mercenary's sword. "Like heck you're getting that sword back!" Lloyd growled, charging for it, for now the fight turned into a face. If he got the blade he could fight with two swords but if Kratos got it first Lloyd would have some painful bruises for pulling that stunt.

Xxx xxx xxx

Raine sighed, set her hands over Lloyd's back and sent waves of healing mana into the young man's bruises. Lloyd lay on his back, the guards were shedding their steel armor and one of the slender ones was fighting his way into Lloyd's spare red shirt and overalls. The young woman who had died her hair white shifted uncomfortably in Raine's orange jacket and black pants, twirling a make shift staff in her hands with obvious discomfort. The fake "Kratos" had stolen the real one and was trying desperately to get his hair to look like the mercenaries.

"Have you ever heard of a hair clip, or a hair cut?" The man grumbled. Kratos' answering glare must have been ferocious because the guardsman stuttered an apology.

False Chosen and real Chosen were sitting on a rock alongside the road. The fake Chosen was braiding Colette's hair in return for the ribbon work that the blonde savior had done to her hair. They talked, leaned against each other, and it was impossible for Raine to tell that Colette was an angel in that moment. She looked like any other young girl who was just having a silly hair moment with her friends. Genis' sigh cut through the air, he was yet again trying to teach the young boy who'd dyed his hair white and was in a set of imitation Genis clothes how to use the toy kendama.

"OK I got it!" The boy piped, and there was a series of quick 'clack's and Genis laughed.

"That is better. Hey I'll challenge you to see who can tap it fastest."

"You're on!"

Soon it sounded like rabid woodpeckers were trying to gnaw through a tree as both kendama went to their mad tapping.

"Opps!"

Raine looked up, as did Genis, to see the human's kendama arch through the air and smash into Kratos' head. The mercenary wheeled about, his eyes flashing and the human boy pointed to Genis.

"Wow Genis I can't tell the difference between you two!" Lloyd laughed as the mercenary descended on the boy's promises of bloody infanticide written on his expression. "Run guys!"

Squealing in terror the children did so and Raine chuckled when she saw Noishe jog up behind the mercenary as he was about to catch Genis. Noishe leapt and the boy's got away, the mercenary being unable to run with three hundred pounds of dog on him.

"Bark!"

"Heh, I dunno if I should take lessons with you Kratos if Noishe can kick your butt then maybe he should teach me!"

"Damn it help me!" Kratos roared, he bucked sharply and Noishe smacked him with a paw.

"Ohh Raine'd by Noishe!" Lloyd laughed, and his laughter got cut off as Raine firmly smacked him with a hand on the back of his head.

"Stop gloating young man."

"Yes Professor… oww…" He rubbed his head.

"Oh I have an idea!" The human child grinned at the mercenary. "Come on Genis let's get the paints from my packs."

"Don't you dare!" Kratos tried to get up but Noishe was laying down, his tail thumping a wild tune against Kratos' legs.

"Come on Kratos, be nice to the children, it's just a game after all." Raine scolded. She patted Lloyd on the back to tell him they were done.

"Yeah Kratos lighten up, it's just a game… hey I think I have some feathers that we can use as brushes in my packs!"

"Oh I have some ribbons we could use from Triet!" Colette chirped.

Kratos was turning a very pale color as the boys returned with a few small bottles of paint, as Colette came back with an arm load of ribbons, and Lloyd came back to them sporting a feather brush for each of them. He however looked like he had been struck dead when Raine came up to him an opened pale gray battered case in her hands, inside was a number of paints for nails and powders for the face.

"No, absolutely not!" Kratos tried to squirm out from under Noishe. But the guardsmen wanted in on the fun and had pinned the limbs that Noishe could not cover.

"Do his eyelashes Raine!" Genis giggled and Raine with an evil grin on her face complied. Kratos squirmed, fought, and finally gave up.

"The second I can get up I swear I'm going to all but drown myself in a river to clean up, then I'm going to come back and…"

"Stop talking, you're making this really hard Mr. Kratos." Colette scolded, as she wove ribbons in the man's thick hair and decided she was going to make as many braids as she could.

"Opps…" Lloyd's feather stroke went into Kratos' hair because Kratos had jerked slightly.

"I'm going to kill you all…" Kratos snarled and made a choked cough –a muffled laugh?- as Genis stroked his neck with a paint laden feather.

"I do believe you are ticklish Mr. Aurion." Raine grinned down at the scared looking man. "Shall we test that hypothesis?"

Genis and Lloyd began to rub the feathers against Kratos' neck, in less then five second the man was howling with laughter, trying to get away. Kratos tried to make a few threats, but was soon having enough trouble trying to breath. Eventually they ran out of Kratos to honestly paint, every inch of his face, neck, and hands, were a riot of conflicting colors, and his hair, the sight of all those bright colored ribbons dangling from the ends of those locks of auburn hair. Genis and his imposter fell onto the road laughing, tears running down their faces. Colette giggled, and the guards were howling with laughter. Lloyd stared at Kratos, tried to keep a straight face, than seemed to hold himself together as his mirth tried to rip him apart. What was even worse was when the man tried to scowl; it made it all the more funny. Raine leaned against her staff, shoulders shaking; eyes running wet with tears, her laughter were so great it honestly hurt something inside. Kratos stormed off, they'd passed a river not too long ago and he went to it to clean himself.

"Oh Sweet Martel he's going to honestly kill us for that!" Genis croaked, whipping his eyes.

"Worth it though!" Came Lloyd's, and everyone's, general consent.

Xxx xxx xxx

Kratos stared at himself, and chuckled. Gods those children were vicious sometimes. He sighed, could tell Lloyd's slender swipes of the brush from Genis' wilder strokes and Raine's tightly controlled swipes. First off because each of them used different strokes and second because the all used different colors. Lloyd had traced a hundred lines of red over him, Genis' strokes were a deep blue, and Raine had taken the green paint. Dipping his hands into the stream he watched as the first of their play drifted downstream, at least the ripples obscured his reflection. Damn that she-elf, she had put choal around his eyes and put eyelash thickener over his lashes. He ducked his head under the waters and rubbed violently with his paint slimed hands, his hair fanned out behind him a mess of ribbon and locks. The ribbons were going to take at least an hour to work out, never had shaving his head seemed so alluring. Finally he decided to Hell with it, he peeled off his tunic, worked off his gloves and arm sheathes, nearly ripped off his cloak, kicked off his boots, and with some fumbling managed to get off his belts and pants. As exposed as he was the day he drew his first breath Kratos dove into the clear waters, a trail of color falling behind him. He cut across the length and width of the pond, allowing the waters to sooth him and take away the pressure of being forever alert. That was his mistake, as he stood a few feet in the pool he began to work off the tangled mess of ribbons and hair, he heard a sound more chilling then any roar of a monster. He heard a giggle, a female giggle, and he looked up to see woman in orange staring at him, it wasn't Raine however but Dorr's in training imposture. She calmly bent, picked up his clothes and walked off whistling a cheery tune. His roars that she return his possessions went completely unheeded, she took a seat some distance away from the river and made herself comfortable sitting on his cloak and looked at him expectantly.

Kratos only met her gaze in a one hundred percent genuine death glare, but his rage did not faze her in the slightest, she only waited. Luckily the water wasn't all that cold to him, he'd swim in colder and he could wait her out. Still he did not want to wait her out! He wanted his damned clothes back. This was why he never took jobs escorting women, this was why.

"The second I get my clothes back Ms. I am going to kill you, slowly." He whispered, treading water that if it had been sensitive to his tone had turned to solid ice.

"But the trick is getting your clothes, isn't it?" She smiled at him and Kratos hated that look. It was that puppy adoration woman liked to favor on him because he was quiet, and wore black. "And this is completely you fault, if you had responded to my flirting earlier I wouldn't have to do this."

Kratos growled and treaded water, praying help -or a monster he wasn't picky at this point- would come soon.

Xxx xxx xxx

"He's been gone for an hour… I guess I better go check on him." Lloyd said more to sooth Colette worry then anything else. Kratos was a good swordsman he couldn't imagine the man getting into a situation he couldn't fight out of, it was probably all the unbraiding that was taking so long. "I'll be back in a bit!"

Raine nodded, the guards went back to eating the lunch Genis' had made for everyone , and Genis was going over some kendama tricks with his new human friend.

That was the normal scene Lloyd left, what he came to when he got to the river was something totally insane.

"Oh hi!" The girl waved from her blanket of Kratos' clothes, a quick glance at the river told Lloyd exactly where Kratos was.

"Finally!" The mercenary snarled. "Do something!"

"Ummm…" Lloyd felt himself growing red. "I'm gunna go get Raine…"

"Not that!" Kratos howled. "This is bad enough as it is, I'll never hear the end of it if you fetch the elf!"

"He's so cute!" The girl sighed looking at Kratos all weird like. "I'll give you your clothes if you come out of the water." She said brightly.

Lloyd shuddered, no wonder Kratos was staying in the water, he'd seen one of the bakers like this after one of the woodworkers in Iselia. It had been scary as heck.

"You… you know your really putting him on the spot… I bet… he'd never go out with you after this!" Lloyd said, aware that Kratos' glare had shifted targets.

"So you mean he was interested?" The girl in Raine's spare jacket looked up at him.

"Ummm…" Kratos was trembling in his rage, Lloyd expected steam as well as several fireballs to come rising out of the water any second now. "Well isn't it bad for a girl to be chasing a guy without knowing anything about him?" Lloyd squeaked, shaking a little in fear.

The girl was thoughtful, her brown eyes calculating. "You seem close to him, I imagine you could tell me some stuff about him."

"Erm… Yeah I guess I could."

Little noises of outrage, sputters, and oaths, were coming from the river.

I'm so dead, deader then dead, please work or he's gunna kill me!

"Did you say something?"

"Nothing!" Lloyd coughed. "So what do you want to know?"

"Well we've been traveling together for a while and I haven't even heard his name once."

"Oh… he's Kratos."

"Hi Kratos, I'm Candy!" She waved and the mercenary slithered deeper into the water. "He's awful shy isn't he?"

"Yeah…"

"Oh that makes him even cuter!" Candy squeaked, clapping he hands. "So what's he do, like his job?"

"Umm, he's a traveling mercenary."

"What's it like?"

"Hard, he has to sleep outside a ton without a tent most of the time and kill monsters." Seeing Candy's look of disgust Lloyd added a lot more on. "It's really uncomfortable because there's no inn and none of the Houses of Salvation even let mercenaries in them! And he has to take monster ears or no one believes him that he killed all those monsters."

"Oh…" Candy defiantly looked less interested. "Does it pay much?"

"Ten gald an ear I think." Lloyd was lying like no one's business now. "Maybe even less."

"Does… he look for anything in women?"

Kratos' eyes promised instant death if he answered that one wrong. Tugging at his vest Lloyd coughed shifted and was aware of Kratos' eyes boring into him like knives.

"He's married!" Lloyd squeaked out the truth, under that gaze he could do no less.

"He is?" Candy pouted, "why is it always the cute ones that get taken? Are they close?" Candy said at last, in a small little voice that was filled with desperation.

Lloyd imagined that Kratos snarled something very "not-nice" -as Colette would put it- in his weird gibberish language.

"The closest!" Lloyd squeaked… the glare of death wasn't on him anymore but that girl must of been thicker then him to not feel those eyes on her. "Umm actually he's going with us to visit her in…" Lloyd tried to remember the map and just picked a name off of it at random. "Asgard, yeah that's right Asgard!"

It was the right thing to say because she looked very very disappointed and looked wistfully at the mercenary who was by now probably half raisin.

"Oh…" She got up, all hunger gone. "I'm sorry… Well is that elf kid done cooking lunch?"

"Yeah, he is." Lloyd sighed with relief, then paled a bit as she looked at him speculatively.

"When you grow up I bet you'll be cute… how old are you?"

Lloyd made a string of gibbering noises and almost ran as she cupped his face with a hand.

"Too young," her eyes sparkled. "When you grow up or find some other cute guys come to the boating dock for Thodia and I'll give you a free ride. For being such a sweaty I'll give you a free trip for you and your friends and for every cute guy you bring I'll give you all another ride, how's that?"

"Nice." Lloyd whimpered.

She looked to the water, her eyes hopeful.

"You wouldn't be thinking about getting out of the water now would you? If you did I'd give all of your friend's free rides forever!"

Kratos snarled something and dove under the water.

"I guess that's a no… Oh well." She left humming a tune and the second she had left Kratos' head reappeared over the waters.

"Is she gone?"

"I… think so… are woman always that scary?"

"No thank Origin most aren't that bad. My clothes if you would."

"Oh umm right…" Lloyd gingerly picked up the man's black tunic used them to carry the boots, he bundled the pants and undergarments and used the cloak to carry those then dropped it all on the sandy bank. Lloyd pointedly stared at a tree while Kratos got dressed behind him. The mercenary walked behind him, there was a clink of metal, the jingle of belts, and a soft sigh on the mercenary's part and Lloyd imagined the guy stroking his sword.

"I owe you one." Kratos said, and Lloyd turned to see the mercenary was fighting with his last boot. "I owe you a huge one… My God I thought I was going to freeze off my man hood waiting for her to leave."

Lloyd dipped a hand in the water.

It's not all that cold, it's kinda warm actually."

"I guess I still have some of Triet's heat in my bones." Kratos shrugged. "Just out of morbid curiosity what would you have done if she was still going to be persistent?"

"I'd of told her you worshiped other things besides Martel."

"Ah, alternate religion, the ultimate woman repellent." Kratos' lips curled though the rage still shimmered in his eyes. "I swear to the High God if she isn't gone by tonight I'll…"

"Well she should be, we're splitting with them tonight, right?"

Kratos nodded, grew somber.

"It will take three days to get to the ranch. I still wish we could have kept that horse or it would have taken only one."

"Where did you get that horse anyways?" Lloyd asked as they began to go back to the road, to the others. Despite being creped out earlier lunch sounded great right now.

"I would rather not discuss it." Kratos grimaced, looked at him weirdly. "You would not want to know."

"Oookay…" Lloyd frowned. "Does this have to do with the fat guy at the House calling you a bandit?"

Kratos grimaced. "I thought I told you I didn't wish to discuss this."

"Alright shesh, your weirdness is showing again."

"I will do what I can to restrain it."

And while Kratos was probably being serious Lloyd found it funny. Laughing, Lloyd draped an arm over the poor mercenary's shoulder. At the man's surprised expression -for all knew it could of stemmed from the laughter or from being touched, who knew why Kratos did what he did?- Lloyd laughed all the harder.

Xxx xxx xxx

The path was unguarded, there were no monsters prowling the area. It was much to their surprise then they made it to the Ranch and had not encountered monster or Desian. Kratos seemed to have fused his hand to his sword, and much to Genis' surprise Lloyd was acting the exact same way. But then they were acting a little alike now, they even looked alike wearing that same serious look with hands half fused to their weapons. There had been no games after they left the road and the guards. He and Colette had ridden Noishe while Lloyd and Kratos and Raine had walked. Kratos taking the point in front of the dog while Lloyd and Raine kept pace on the sides. It had been a somber journey, no one had talked, they'd all been so tense, so scared, and it had infected all of them, even Colette. On the eve of the last day, as they approached the ranch and slinked into perhaps the last clearing that was far enough away from the ranch to sleep at they found that someone else was there already.

Neil looked at them grimly after delivering his news of PalmaCosta's betrayal. Or, rather, Dorr's betrayal.

"Won't the army get suspicious when they wander around and don't find anything?" Genis growled.

"The Desian's do much like we do; they set up training exercises outside their base. I imagine the army will 'stumble' upon one of those and get enough blood to appease even the most blood thirsty vigilante." Neil shivered. "He told me, to my face that's what was going to happen, that your deaths were an unavoidable consequence and I had to steel myself for making such decisions for the well fare of PalmaCosta when he died. I couldn't..."

"You repaid his betrayal with your own." Kratos shrugged. "History will dictate who was just in the end."

"That son of a b-" Raine gave Lloyd a sharp look and even in his anger the red clad boy knew better then to finish that sentence.

"It was to be expected, PalmaCosta was allowed to have an army by the Desian's, this game has been going on for a very long time I imagine. But while we know Dorr's involvement we do not know the full extent. He could have valuable information or in fact be a mere pawn."

"What are you saying Professor?" Lloyd frowned at his teacher.

"Isn't it obvious?" Kratos crossed his arms in front of him. "I agree Ms. Sage, both with your logic and your suggestion."

"I still don't hear a suggestion." Lloyd complained.

"You aren't all that bright are you." Neil frowned. "I just... I need to go back to the army, warn them."

"Only if you want to be murdered will you do that." Kratos let his eyes bore into Neil and the man bravely returned that stare. "Few if any will believe you, oh you might be able to sway a few for you are in high regard, but even if they do believe you do you think they shall stop? Their goal is blood, and they'll have it, first the Desian's then the people who run PalmaCosta's high council."

Neil paled, looked into the darkness and harbored his grim thoughts in silence.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Colette protested as Kratos began to pack up their positions.

"We are going back to PalmaCosta to question Dorr."

Neil paled and looked scared. Little wonder he did, Genis thought to himself, the second we come back Dorr's going to know he double crossed.

"We can't leave, not with all of those people in danger in the ranch!"

Kratos scowled at Colette, it was Raine who spoke however.

"We dare not attack the ranch with no information, if Dorr has knowledge of a secret way in or some trinket that can get us by the guards without fighting it would be helpful. I know there are people in there being hurt, I know it's hard to walk away, but it's only for a little while then we'll be back and free them."

Colette jerked off Raine's supporting hand, her eyes fixed on the ranch.

"Raine, we can't leave, Chocolat is in there!" Genis protested.

They then all turned to Lloyd.

"Why me?" Lloyd muttered.

"Lloyd…" Colette looked to him and the swordsman gulped. "We have to go in, we can't make them wait."

"Come on Lloyd, we can't let Cocao down!"

Kratos said nothing, stared at the path back, which were words enough.

"Whatever your judgment is, I will… trust in it." Raine smiled slightly. "Perhaps those guided by instinct have a purpose and aren't always wrong."

"Thanks a ton Professor…" Lloyd grumbled, "I want to run in their and just fight our way through… but if that green haired guys ranch taught me anything… It's not to underestimate these guys. We need everything we can get. I say we head back, push Dorr around and get what we can."

Neil made a squeaking noise, not unlike a mouse protesting that it was going to be sent to fight a lion. Colette and Genis made louder protesting noises that were defiantly outraged.

"Lloyd you can't be saying that!" Genis yelled. "Those people are suffering; you didn't see what it was like for..."

"You don't think I didn't see!" Lloyd flared. "I lived less then two miles from one of these things! What I didn't see I heard!"

"That's enough." Kratos put a hand on Lloyd's shoulder. "Calm down Lloyd, now is not the time. If we are to carry through with questioning Dorr then we must head back now."

"Where is the main army?" Raine turned on Neil, "do they have orders to attack us, what of the commanders?"

"Fanatically loyal to Dorr," Neil frowned. "All of them adore him, nearly worship him, his father used to fight alongside them and he did to until his wife died. He would not orphan his child, he said, then…"

"Now isn't the time to be admiring the man." Kratos said icily. "He is a threat to this regeneration and must be dealt with as such."

"You sound as if you plan murder." Neil said softly.

"If need be, you might consider it an eye for an eye." Kratos said in a chill voice.

"We are not hurting him." Lloyd growled. "We're just going to question him."

"How, ask him nicely?" Kratos spat. "He's all but arranged for our deaths, I wager the Desian's already know we are coming…"

"You take an eye that someone takes from you and you're both missing an eye, no one wins." Lloyd snapped, he crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared up at the man. "If you're gunna kill him, than you're gunna stay here, with Neil."

"You don't give _me_ orders boy."

"Vote, if we go to PalmaCost and question Dorr, who says we kill Dorr?" Lloyd said in a nasty tone, he waited no one raised their hands. "Who says we try to question Dorr, without hurting him?"

Lloyd, Colette, Genis, and Raine's hands went up, as well as one green paw.

"Fine." Kratos spat the word. "You have my word that I will not harm Dorr, but know your mercy will Damn you all to an early death."

Lloyd shrugged, it was his life and his death, Kratos didn't have the right to say a damned thing.

Xxx

"Alright," Raine snapped as she poured the bowls of her soup –it looked more like stew but no one was saying anything- for the group. "To quote Lloyd; this is annoying, beyond annoying. Every time something important happens and we make a decision everyone gets into a fight, this inane cycle that has to stop!"

"What?" Llyod looked up from eating, his mind had been else where so he was eating without thinking about it or saying anything, he'd been quiet since the fight.

Colette looked up from her food, she was for once sitting by herself. Everyone had taken seats as far away from everyone else as they could and still be in the firelight. Never had the saying together and apart been given such a concrete example as the one before her.

Genis refused to look up from his book to aknowldege her words.

Kratos stared off into the night, his hand absently running the oiled cloth over his blade.

no one had been talking to Lloyd except her, Colette and Genis had spoke a little to each other and Kratos had actually been abandoned by Noishe and left to brood by himself for the bulk of the day.

"In-ane…" Lloyd made a face. "Professor, what's in-a-ne mean."

"It means, stupid, Lloyd." Genis snapped over the edge of his book, there were some implications to his tone that Raine did not like.

"Alright," Raine glared at the lot of them. "I'm calling an emergency meeting, right now."

Lloyd yawned, "I'm gunna go to bed."

"No Mr. Irving, you are not."

"I got last watch Raine…" Lloyd made a face. "With Kratos, you know he'll skin me if I start nodding during my watch."

"Usar gravue Lloyd."

Lloyd stared at Raine, she'd just pulled the one thing on him he could not ignore, she had used the dwarven words that bound him to her.

"No fair!" He wined, sitting down in a huff more suiting a twelve year old.

Kratos looked at them both, shook his head and drew out a stone, and began to scrap the stone against the steel. They all winced as that grating sound filled the silence of the night.

"Would you stop that?" Genis snarled, lowering his book. "I can't read when you do that!"

"Well I need to be able to tend my gear Mr. Sage, if you are so delicate then feel free to go off a ways while I work."

"Genis," Raine snapped as her brother was about ready to do just that, "Sit down. Kratos play with your sword later."

Well she had Genis and Kratos' attention, though they were both favoring her with hostile glares. How did Lloyd do this? She who had been speaking all her working life in front of audiences found herself faltering.

"What's wrong Professor?" Colette asked, setting aside her food.

"What isn't?" Raine stood. "Ever since Lloyd made his decision we have been fighting. Every time Lloyd makes a decision everyone who doesn't agree with him starts fighting with him. It pits everyone against everyone else. I'm as guilty as the rest of you, but now seeing how bad it is I only have to say it must stop or I soon expect we'll have an argument about direction. Half of us will say east, the other west, and when Lloyd picks after looking at a map we'll all start fighting each other over that."

Colette giggled. "That's silly Professor, we'd never fight about that!"

Genis frowned, his expression thoughtful.

"Haven't we been though? Didn't we all fight each other when Kratos, an experienced traveler, tried to lead us and we didn't like his direction? When Lloyd sided with him we nearly exploded." Raine said to her brother, who seemed more open to her words now. "When Lloyd decided to side with Colette about going to the house of Salvation, Kratos and I tried to bully him into making him go around. And I know you gave him absolute hell over the PalmaCosta incident." Raine said to a chagrined Kratos.

"I acted out of turn, and I apologized to Lloyd." Kratos said weakly.

"Professor," Lloyd raised his hand. "I've got a question."

"Lloyd, dear, we aren't in my Iselia class room, you don't need to do that to get my attention anymore."

"Oh… habit… sorry. But, why me?"

"Why what dear?" Raine stared at Lloyd, as usual not understanding him.

"Why me, why do I have to pick every time?"

Crickets chirped as the adults and children looked at each other, embarrassed.

"Well… ummm…" Raine blushed, for once without an intelligent thing to say.

"Well you're good at it Lloyd, every time we have a disagreement you always step in and say something and it stops!" Colette chirped.

"I guess so." Lloyd made a face, looked at the green 'soup' he had been eating, he sniffed it and whistled to Noishe. "Here boy, you look hungry!"

"Bark!"

After eating Kratos' bowl, Colette's bowl, and Genis' bowl, there was still room in that bottomless pit of a stomach for even more. Noishe lapped up the green pepper split pea soup all the while purring happily, and Raine for once was uncaring. She was thinking on something else that suddenly loomed in front of her and stung like a quick cuff to the ears.

"We've been slipping again." Raine said quietly.

"Indeed…" Kratos muttered, looking shammed.

"Geze how could we be so stupid!" Genis smacked himself on the head.

"Guys?" Lloyd looked at them baffled.

"Nothing Lloyd," Raine smiled. "You can go to sleep dear, Kratos and I need to have a little talk."

"Nah, I'm up." Lloyd gave them all a cautious look, as if he was expecting them to grow claws and go at each other the second his back was turned. Considering their past behavior such a response was understandable.

"Lloyd, you are right, we have no right to keep shoving this onto you, even if you are the one we all trust the most in a crisis. We need to have a talk, and sort this out, and you need to sleep so… Kratos doesn't skin you alive during your watch."

"Alright…" he went to his blankets wearily, slithered under then and was still watching them like he was thinking he was going to have to hop out of the blanket and break apart a fight.

He was justified though, out of all of them he was the most free of guilt, and the guilty, well they had to sit down and have a long talk to fix what was going on. Which was exactly what they were going to do.

"A friend of a friend once made a recommendation, that all sensitive subjects should be addressed with some thing to keep the hands busy." Kratos drew out a pouch and tossed it to the small elf. Surprised Genis opened it up, stared at the mix of herbs.

"Tea?"

"Would you rather be it soup?"

Raine scowled and Kratos returned the look blandly.

"If we are guilty of one thing, all of us, it is that none of us can seem to take criticism well, so much so that we take a differing opinion as criticism. I imagine since it is a universal flaw that this is as good a starting place as any."

Raine chewed on her lower lip.

"I concur, it is a universal trait amongst this group."

And with that weird long word babble going on it took little for Lloyd to finally fall asleep. And while he didn't understand it at all, he thought he understood the tone. It was, kinda friendly, but with two adults, who knew?

Xxx

"Fireball!" Genis waved his hands and the orb of fire in his palm went up and fell from the sky like a meteor. His target dodged aside the attack, and the child elf lifted his kendama as the blade ached down. He managed to push aside the short sword –more accurately the sword pushed him aside- and tried to get off another spell.

"I told you Ms. Sage, this was not a good camp site!" Kratos snarled, stabbing at the bandit before him, the man in a dark green jerken and brown pants backed off out of the range of the attack. "Lloyd told you this wasn't a good camp site!" The mercenary swatted the arrow out of the air before it could imbed itself in his chest. "In the name of the true Gods, _Colette_ said this wasn't a good camp site!"

The bandit was looking confused, as the man before him wasn't even paying him much attention, was just yelling at the elf woman who was clacking her staff against a the bandit groups witch's across the clearing. He didn't know that if Kratos had been even favoring him with half of his attention the man would have been dead long ago. The archer didn't have another shot, Lloyd summoned a wave of silver light and the man crumpled to the ground in pain. Seeing the archer out of it Lloyd ran to the thief that was attacking Genis, trying to get through the elf to Colette. Another demon fang and the man was out cold on the ground.

"Hey Kratos, you need some help?"

"I've got it." Kratos swatted aside the slash with his shield then with the hilt of his sword leading he smashed his weapon into the bandits jaw. The man spun, fell to the ground, and slumped at the mercenary's feet. Kratos knelt to rip the man's cloak off and whipped the coating of blood off of hilt and hand.

"You are becoming too reliant on that trick I taught you, it's making you predictable." Kratos scolded Lloyd, tossing the soiled fabric to the earth. "To be predictable it to…"

"Have openings and be dead," Lloyd sighed. "I don't want to kill then and that's the only way I know…"

"Use the hilts of your blades Lloyd, just smash the cross bar into…"

"Hey guys, my sister needs some help!" Genis yelled, breaking up the friendly argument. "Sheesh if we left you too alone you'd yap about dumb swords stuff and just forget everything else!"

"Ms Sage is doing fine by herself." Kratos grumbled, not liking the interruption.

Raine was doing fine on her own, she was by no means elegant, but she was doing a good job. She had smashed her foes staff so many times, so hard, that the wood was about ready to snap. With a sickening crack the witch's staff snapped in twain and with a loud thump the strike descended and smacked into the pointy broad rimmed hat, and went through that to his skull. The thief magi's eyes rolled back into her head and she hit the ground twitching.

"Uh oh, is she alright Professor?"

The elf kneeled onto the ground, checked the downed thief's pulse and sighed.

"She's alive, she'll probably have a minor concussion though."

"But she'll be alright?" Colette pressed, not at all concerned that the people around them had been trying to kill her.

"Yes Colette." Raine smiled indulgently at her pupil, patted the concerned girl on the head. "We should move on I guess, and I'm sorry everyone, I made a mistake…"

Lloyd blushed, scuffed a boot across the ground, thinking no one had caught the gesture because he was in the back of the group. In the gathering dark he did not see Kratos' eyes flick in his direction. The mercenary frowned, lagged just a little letting the energetic Chosen and Genis take the point.

"Sorry Professor, I guess it's kinda my fault we…"

"You were keeping an eye out for what you needed, and it was a nice catchy of herbs with other rare types. Your dazzle headache brew was running low due to the fact that I neglected to buy ingredients while we were in PalmaCosta. It was my fault in full that we needed to stop here, and I understand how uncomfortable you are in saying you need certain medicines sometimes. Most people find the need in something beyond themselves as an embarrassment."

"Well it is, I mean it's dumb that I need stuff for my head sometimes."

"Lloyd, we all get headaches, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

Lloyd sighed while Kratos frowned into the dark.

"Yeah, I guess your right. But I bet that girl with the weird hat really needs it now, nothing worse for a headache then getting Raine'd!"

Raine made an outraged noise and Lloyd ran ahead, darted past Kratos and joined his younger friends. The mercenary smiled, stroked the hilt of his sword as they moved on leaving the bandits behind them. He was a little concerned, dazzle headaches were no light thing, but for now he would hold his curiosity in check. Not everything would have to be answered at once. He could wait as long as need be.

Xxx

"Professor." Lloyd frowned at the end of her lectures. "I have a question."

Raine smiled, pleased that Lloyd was showing some curiosity at last. It was the middle of the last day of travel, she had been teaching with a passion to keep the children's minds off of what was to come, and it was working to some degree. They had again talked her and Kratos, they had talked the first night of their journey, and after seeing Lloyd's brooding stares and Colette and Genis' strained expressions had decided distraction was needed. Kratos had agreed to handle Lloyd when the Iselian swordsman became bored with her lectures, but the bulk of distracting came to her.

"This is something they need, and I can not provide." Kratos had said as he looked at something far away. "I am as tactless as a boar, have the manners of a starving wolf, and little patience to play entertainer. I can keep Lloyd distracted, but my means of doing so would bother the Chosen greatly."

"Your stories." Raine had frowned, not liking them all that much.

"Call them as you will." Kratos said coolly. "I assign the task to you, since I imagine the tales of my travels would not be suitable entertainment for children."

So distract, or teach she did.

"What happened before the Church was established? Everyone always starts the story when the church was made but no one ever bothers to go beyond that."

"Lloyd…" Colette frowned. "The world wasn't even around way back then. The angels made the world, so there wasn't a time when there wasn't a Church of Martel."

"Oh," Lloyd frowned. "But if Kratos worships things that were worshiped before Martel then how could the Martel Church be there if it wasn't there when…" Lloyd rubbed his head. "Man this is too confusing!"

"It's a contradiction," Raine explained. "You have one source that says one thing, and then you have one man saying another. I don't mean to call you a liar Kratos, but there is much more proof with the text of the holy book, the ruins, and the various histories."

"No insult taken." The mercenary said, his eyes flicking across the world about them, forever looking for danger.

"I imagine the clans where Kratos was born were merely confused people who did not know of the ways of Martel." Raine continued.

"The Angels, didn't they make Martel known to everyone?" Lloyd protested. "So how come Dad, or me, or Kratos, didn't know?"

"They say everyone knows of the angels in their hearts Lloyd." Colette pointed out. "The Goddess puts that knowledge in all of us. Sometimes we forget, or accept other things as truth, that isn't the truth."

Raine watched Lloyd take a deep breath, exert control over himself, and she wondered who had been teaching him to do that. She only had to look at Kratos, who was favoring Lloyd with what could only be called an affectionate gaze, and she knew. Raine did not like the man, there was something utterly cold and calculating about him that made her leery trusting much less liking him, but he was helping Lloyd.

So while liking could never really come, trust was trickling in, she was learning to trust Kratos, as were they all.

Xxx

Through the hustle and bustle that flooded the main gates they managed to slip in. Part of the crowd they had blended in with the many merchants, travelers, and those on pilgrimages. Two elves, a mercenary, a swordsman, and a girl went unnoticed. They went to one of the lower class inns, and over the one room they were to share they took the tacky table and around it gathered around a map of the city.

"The office is here, and his house is here, we are here. From what Neil was able to tell us about the Governor-General he stays at the office the bulk of his time. He comes sun up and leaves just a little before sunset."

"Has anyone even been to the higher class streets when we were here last time?" Raine asked, looking at Lloyd pointedly.

"I didn't have time to explore as much as I wanted to, plus the cities really big so…" Lloyd blushed. "Sorry guys."

"I only went to the chapel." Colette said.

"And we were at the school every second we could get doing research and studying." Genis said to his sister.

They all looked at Kratos.

"The upper class do not normally allow sell sword of my low class near their yards much less inside to ask about jobs. The closest I've ever gotten to being inside was when I… Well lets say I knew the dungeon under one of the grounds of one wealthy merchant several years back and leave it at that."

"What did you do?" Lloyd asked, lips curling into a grin.

"I failed a bet, alright?"

"Wow I guess you can do stupid things too Kratos!" Genis laughed.

"Do not push my temper; it is very short these days." The mercenary said in a cold detached tone that made a chill run down everyone's backs.

"Umm… well what was the dungeon like?"

Kratos' eyes turned to slits and Lloyd cringed back.

"What I mean is if we get caught and thrown in them could we get out, like I did in Triet?"

"You never did tell us what happened in Triet, so how would I know if the experiences are comparable?" Kratos mused.

"I don't want to talk about it." Lloyd said quickly.

"Really?" Kratos' eyes seemed to glitter with malicious humor. "What did you do?"

"N...nothing…"

"He probably pulled a Colette step and the door popped open!" Genis chuckled.

"I did not!"

"Sure."

"Shut it!"

Genis stuck his tongue out and Raine restrained Genis while Kratos gripped Lloyd's fore arm.

"Play fight later." Kratos sighed, pushing Lloyd into his seat firmly. "Let's just say that willingly showing up on Dorr's door step and surrendering so we can try to break out of the dungeon cells under his mansion would not be the wisest of moves. Also, knowing what we do of the man's ancestors we can safely assume that the house was built for defense, not opulence."

"Huh?"

"Never mind Lloyd, the house probably isn't the safest place to attack." Raine said. "Plus his daughter would probably be there, we don't want to get her involved with this."

Lloyd nodded, agreed, as did Genis, Kratos was silent, his eyes brooding over the map.

"So let's go to the office then and…"

"Not now, it's almost sun set now, we probably wouldn't get there in time." Genis pointed out, the sun was setting the world behind them on fire, the waters of the ocean, which they could see from the dock side hotel, were crimson.

"Tomorrow morning then. We should set watches."

"In a town?" Lloyd protested.

"This is for all intents and purposes, enemy territory; we should not lower our guards."

"Kratos," Raine protested. "No one saw us enter or we would be in a dungeon cell by now."

"You're too nervous Kratos." Colette smiled. "The Goddess will protect us so we'll be fine. I bet everything was just a big accident and it'll all be all right come tomorrow."

Colette yawned, wished them all good dreams, and went to the bed that had been given to her. Colette and Genis would have the beds; Raine, Kratos, and Lloyd, would share the floor and hope the rats weren't overly brave. Kratos grunted, leaned against the wall, not willing to go to sleep without at least standing guard for a few hours. Raine curled about her blankets, eyes sliding closed, and she was asleep in a few moments.

"Hey Genis," Lloyd drew out a deck of cards. "You up to a game?"

Kratos watched the children play a few rounds of poker, odd and end things being offered in steed of gald. The children argued the value of beads, bits of ribbon, and a few wooden carvings, making their own currency of sorts. He watched as Lloyd bided a hand sized carving of a wolf, and pitted it against a few measly beads and odd end rocks. If sold the item would be worth at least fifty gald, well Kratos would have paid that much for it, it was a very high quality specimen. Demeaned by Lloyd himself, as the boy termed it as a drizzle projects, and constantly undervalued it's worth.

Soon yawns punctured the game, Lloyd encouraged his friend to go to sleep, and the wolf which had gone back and forth between the children was now secure in Genis' winnings pouch. Lloyd did not follow his own advice,

"You should rest; tomorrow will be a long day."

Lloyd shook his head, sat on the dirty floor a top his blankets but did not move to go to sleep.

"Too antsy, I'd walk around but I'd wake everyone up." Lloyd whispered.

Kratos considered, he was skilled enough a warrior to know when a situation was dangerous, and despite what he had told Raine he doubted they would be attacked. He mentally toyed around with the idea of tying to go to sleep, but with Lloyd awake he knew just how antsy the boy could get while being still. And how noisy Lloyd could be while being _quiet_.

"Do you know the game, _Trava_?"

Lloyd looked up, surprised. "I didn't think you played games."

"Even mercenaries play form time to time, though we are quiet about it." Kratos cracked a weary smile that Lloyd's more then made up for with its raw childish enthusiasm. "An old friend of mine used to play it… we became estranged over the years and I haven't found anyone who's traveled with me long enough to teach them the rules."

"Alright, it can't be that hard right?"

Kratos chuckled, that same glint in his eyes as all the times before when Lloyd was wrong and was going to learn painfully how wrong.

Xxx

"Cards and a board?"

"We'll start you on the easy form, just working with the pieces, if you like to I'll introduce the cards."

"Alright."

Kratos picked up the smallest piece, a small person in some strange jagged armor.

"This is a swordsman, he moves one league per turn, four of them may move at once as a unit…"

The explanation of the easy form took a whole hour, and Lloyd's head was ringing by the end.

"Don't worry; I'll remind you when you need reminding."

"Alright." Lloyd set up his side, picking form the basic selection, Kratos picked the side with the more resources but lesser number of troops where Lloyd was taking the side with the more powerful starting troops. They'd made a bored with a weird map Raine had gotten in Triet, and Lloyd had spent a bit of time making a hot skip board pattern along a large section. Kratos had put in a few sketchy drawings here and there and in a half hour they were ready to play. Despite the fact that Kratos was going easy, despite the fact that Kratos had the 'bad' side, he beat Lloyd every single game. He ducked behind the heavily woodland sections of his 'side' to nullify Lloyd's archers and then whittled Lloyd's army to pieces. By the fifth game Lloyd was dead tired, he was making so many mistakes in setting up Kratos ordered him to bed.

"You won't do any good half asleep tomorrow."

"I'm going…" Lloyd yawned. "prob'ly why I'm losin' sos much…" Lloyd mumbled, curling up on the bed while Kratos quietly picked up the pieces. A bit of an idea tugged on Lloyd's mind as he watched the man work through half closed lids. With a smile on his lips he decided it was a good one, and sometime after that thought he fell asleep the smile still on his face.

Xxx

The door was open; a door where one should not have been was there. They had gone down those stairs, clinging to the shadows like thieves, Kratos leading, Lloyd behind him, and the others taking the rear. They went down swords drawn, the mercenary spent some time to work his cloak over his blade to hide the tell tale flashes, since his ribbon wouldn't work for that Lloyd just held them close to him and cringed at every torch they passed. It couldn't have been long, but the dark, the gloom, and a reek of decay made it seem horribly long and scary.

Kratos gestured for Lloyd to stay back, and went around the last bend. He came back to them, anger flashing in his eyes, but he beckoned them to come in silence.

"When… when will sh- my wife be back to herself again?"

"The next payment will determine that." Came a sneering voice. "You've been giving us less, the Lord is not pleased with you for that."

"Now listen here!" Came a frusterated reply. "I can't give you more, I've been taking from the church, the taxes, every thing I dare take I have!"

"Become more daring then." The male voice growled. "After all aren't men of power supposed to be daring Governor General? Isn't that the mark of a true leader?"

"Shut up! Just… shut up and be gone from my home!" Came the choked voice of Dorr.

"You should treat me with more respect, _General_. Of would you like another lesson? Your child…"

There was a scream, a child's scream.

"No, please… not my daughter! I'm sorry my Lord, forgive me!"

"That's a little better, kneel next time you say it, as is proper form amongst you animals. Next time we want double Dorr, no excuses. No gald no medicine, it's that simple. Simple enough for a human to follow I imagine."

"Damn you…" Came a soft sob, a broken man's cry.

"Daddy?"

"The bad men are gone now sweetling…" Came the harsh voice made harsher with suppressed tears. "Everything will be alright."

"I seriously doubt that _General_." Kratos spat, storming out of the darkness, hate written on every line of him.

"What's the matter." Lloyd growled, torn between anger and pity, anger winning out for now. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Lloyd, that's a really over clichéd line." Genis sighed, cambering down the stairs, Raine and Colette behind him.

"You… So I was betrayed by Neil."

"You hardly have that right to be saying anything." Kratos hissed, his eyes blazing in hatred. "If Neil is a traitor I can not even imagine what it makes you."

"We need information on the Ranch," Raine said coldly. "After all, I think that discovering the coop and surviving it entitles something."

"I'll tell you nothing!" Dorr took a step back, fumbled with his robes of state and produced a slender thin blade. Call for them were rare as it was considered a weak weapon, a weapon of weaklings, but it was the norm of the elite. Lifting rapier's tip he shoved his daughter behind him and stared at Kratos. "You're the only threat I see here, I warn you once. I am a veteran of war. I hold nothing back."

"Then in that," Kratos shoved back his cloak, freed up his sword. "We are the same."

"No, don't hurt my Daddy, please don't!" Kilia's voice was an attack that none could defend, Kratos lowed the tip of his blade and Dorr did the same.

"Raine, take the girl and the other rest of the children out, now."

"You said you weren't going to hurt him!" Colette protested.

"Kratos, you promised us!" Lloyd exploded, shoving off Raine's insistence that he go with her. "You swore."

"My duty is to the Chosen." Kratos snarled. "This man has not only betrayed her but his whole race! He has no right to live!"

"What right do you have to say that?"

"More then you have to question me." Kratos snarled, staring at Dorr and the man returned the hate for equal hate.

"Kilia, go with the elf." Dorr whispered, staring at Kratos. "I'll be up in a bit."

"Child, obey your father, Lloyd, go with Raine."

"No," Lloyd shivered as those eyes flicked in his direction; he shivered at the dead look Kratos favored him with.

"You still have your child." Kratos hissed, lifting his blade and offering his foe a salute, beginning to walk around the tight basement, prowled the room's dark and filtered sunlight. "They took your wife but you still have your child, and you sell them all out."

"Silence! What right does a peasant have to criticize me? What can you know of it? Nothing! You're just some upstart peasant who got his hands on a blade and parades himself as a swordsman!" Dorr lifted his blade, shuffled his feet a slow crab like walk, his eyes fixated on the gleaming edge of Kratos' blade.

"Look, I'm sorry about your wife!" Lloyd croaked. "You think she's the only one who's died, who's been hurt?"

"Please." Colette fought off Raine's firm pulls to go up the stairs. "We are going to the Desian ranch even if you don't help us; if your wife's been captured we could free her like everyone else!"

"Free her?" Dorr laughed a bitter sound, "She's not some Desian captive!" He leapt forward, Kratos backed up from the dancing blade, his back to a length of wall covered in a thick wool blanket. Kratos caught the lighter blade against his own, wrenched his arm sharply and the lighter sword went flying. Kilia screamed as her father's sword smashed into the ground a few inches away.

"Kratos you are not going to kill this guy in front of his kid!" Lloyd flared drawing his blade.

Lloyd dashed in front of Dorr, blocked the mercenaries swing with his own blade. Kratos was not holding back, the strike was aimed to kill and by shear stupid luck he was able to get in time and bring his sword in line. He braced for the hit, and cursed in pain as both his hands, arms, shoulder, went dead numb from taking the hit. His feet skid back on the wooden floor even though he was braced. He sank to his knees, he could not block another hit like that, he hurt just from blocking the first one and his sword fell from limp fingers.

"You swore, you promised." Lloyd croaked weakly, could do nothing more then pant and wait for the next hit to come.

It didn't, he shivered, looked at the ground before him, could feel Kratos fury and disappointment pound on him, it was hotter then the sun in Triet.

"What… why did you…"

"Look." Raine said, the voice of reason, the only one in this room it seemed. "Those people need us to rescue them in the Ranch, and you are the only person who knows anything about…"

"I can't tell you anything, don't you understand that?" Dorr spat, frustration mixing with the rage. "I can't… they'll hurt my daughter!"

"If we beat them they won't hurt anyone." Genis pointed out.

"If." Dorr snarled. "I will not put the welfare of my family on a _if_."

"You are a fool." Kratos rumbled. "Life is based on _if_, death is the only certainty, and if you are such a coward as to not accept that… To trade your own soul for a few years with your daughter in this life of opulence, to do so at the cost of slandering your wife's memory…"

"Shut up!" Dorr exploded. "What right do you have _mercenary_ to even assume that you can comprehend the situation I am in! None, that's what!"

"I comprehend Dorr; I never sunk as low as you…" The last was delivered at a hiss whisper, and where the words were lost to all but Dorr and Lloyd the tone and vehemence behind it echoed in the room and sent chills down everyone's back.

"Kratos!" Lloyd screamed, looking up to see something behind the curtain reach.

The mercenary turned, brought his blade around and it clashed against claws. Three sword length claws… Kratos brought his steel shield around; let it take the brunt of the claws slashes.

"What the... A monster!" Genis wailed, cringing in fear.

There came a gurgle, a gurgling screech, a scream. Lloyd clapped his hands over his ears, curled into a ball on the floor and howled in pain. He heard from far away Genis, Raine, Colette, scream in pain. Kilia's high pitched voice seemed shriller then the monster's cry. Kratos moaned, shuddered his sword falling to the ground, his shield strapped to his arm scraping the stone as he moved to cover his ears. Only Dorr was unaffected, he seemed to listen to the animal's cry with no pain for a few moments. He then walked forward, stroked a claw and muttered something and the cry died down.

"You want to see my wife?" Dorr's voice grew choked. "Then look! See what they did to her!"

He gripped the blanket now sporting three holes, ripped it aside.

"Oh Gods." Lloyd felt tears slide down his face, all of Iselia came back to him.

It was green, a sick puke green that turned into all the colors of a bruise around the bloated skew face. The neck jutted out sharply to the right, as a person miht in a pain thro but was some how locked. The bleeding puss hued eyes looked at them, no pupil, no anything, just empty expanses of yellow. The smell of decay, Lloyd gagged at that familiar smell, the gargled speech that was mad pained gibberings of an animal. Of a human turned into something worse then an animal. Rags covered it's waist, though little else, it looked upon them, focused on Dorr and a claw snaked through the bars. They watched as it brushed the man's face, drew a thin line of red. Dorr took the smooth upper part of the claw, gripped it and looked at them.

"This is the price of defiance. This was the price I paid for my fool of a father's bravery, this is the price I paid for idealism in my youth. They did this to my wife, my clara, no one can understand that pain." He stroked the flat of the claw tenderly, ignorant of the blood it seemed. "But we'll have the medicine as soon as I pay them they'll give me the medicine."

"As soon as you steel the money." Lloyd croaked. "As you steel the money from the people who trust you, as soon as you let the Desian's rip your army to shreds! You've sent hundreds of people to their deaths!"

"They died fighting the Desians." Dorr hissed, looking down at him. "They get what they wanted, better them then the whole city. And who's to care or know? If they hold to the delusion that their lives actually mean something, that they die for some greater cause, that's between them and their Goddess, isn't it?"

The mons- Clara moaned, and Dorr patted the claw.

"It's the last time, they promised me it would be the last."

Kratos' eyes burned.

"Why should it be? They hang a hope over your head and you'll do anything to see it fulfilled, they leach PalmaCosta of its money, you lose everything, it's all they'd ever want."

Dorr shrugged. "The people of PalmaCosta will be happy, not knowing the truth doesn't hurt them."

"If we…. Went to get the medicine… would you stop taking the money from PalmaCosta?" Colette asked, Dorr looked up at her in confusion as if she had spoken a weird language. "We're going to the Ranch, we can look for the medicine there."

"To go to the Ranch is suicide."

"We're going." Colette said softly. "Even if it's suicide, we are going."

Lloyd nodded, decided to try standing, seeing that his legs were working he tried his arms and picked up his sword. He was hurting, his hands and arms were a little bruised, but he was overall fine. He walked away from Dorr a little, found a pile of crates and took a seat. Wearily Kratos went with him, his eyes never leaving the cage, nor did his sword turn from Dorr's direction even as Dorr and Colette talked of faith.

"Then, I am forgiven?"

"Not by us, we don't have that right, but by the goddess, yes. By the people, that's their choice."

"We need your help Governor General," Raine said softly, if there is no better place to begin, then it is in helping us.

"Yes," Dorr nodded, "I… I know some of the layout of the Ranch and I have a device that will allow you to pass the main security gates without activating any of the alarms."

"See you can really help us out!" Colette chirped.

No one noticed Kilia bite her lip in thought. None saw as she pick herself up from the crate she had cowered behind when her father's sword landed by her. No one noticed the blade was picked up, or see it glow with black mana, then shrink under that un-light glow. Lloyd was too busy wallowing in his hurts; Kratos was focused on the creature. Colette too intent on talking to Dorr, Dorr was lost in the feverish re-telling of the Ranch's lay out, and Rain and Genis too intent on Dorr's words. No one thought anything of it when Kilia went behind her father. Lloyd felt something shake him, it was a mental shake, a dull tingle down his back, his eyes flared open and he stiffened. Kratos sensed, did not look at him, he just sensed Lloyd's tension and they both turned in time to see the altered blade slide into Dorr's back.

"Dorr!" Colette squeaked.

"Pathetic inferior being, do you think I'll allow you to speak anymore… I told Magnius he was a fool for trusting you as much as he did."

Both swordsman were on their feet, blades at the ready. Laughing shill laughter Kilia kicked the human, laughed even harder at the moan.

"What, he's your father!" Genis howled.

"My father…. No human is my _father_. I am beyond my pathetic human sire and beyond my elven dame."

"So, that would make you a half elf." Kratos murmured.

"A Desian, _inferior_ filth, not just a half elf." The fake child cackled. The skin around her face her hands darkened the color of a bruised plum. She smiled at them baring fangs in steed of teeth, shook her head even as horns thrust out of her skull. She shivered as the transformation which seemed horribly painful brought a pleased smile to her lips. She laughed; a husky laugh and shivered as a tail slithered out of her back, mockingly stretched and leered at their expressions of disgust.

"Do you want to know what the most pathetic thing is?" The false Kilia purred, a scorpion like tail weaving in the air behind her. "He never even noticed his girl was dead. It was so easy going into her room at night, sliding in the closet. I stayed a few nights, scratched at the walls and how sweet it was listening to that _fool_ comfort her and say 'there isn't a monster in the closet dear heart there aren't any monster's in the city' and then to be quiet a while, and to let her believe that… And then to watch that belief slid off her face as I came out, she knew her father was away, she always told her when he would be gone overnight." The tail difted over her shoulder and she stroked it fondly. "She knew he wasn't coming, there weren't any guards… It was _so_ easy sliding this through her thin little skull, letting the acid go drop by drop into her brain."

"You bastard!" Lloyd trembled in rage. "You're not a half elf, you're a monster."

"I went under some… modification procedures." The child sized creature smiled. "I was… baptized I guess you'd call it, in a stream of pure dark mana. You can not imagine what it feels to be under the waves of the blood of the world, you can not imagine the pleasure of the power it gives you. But then you'll learn. The power part anyway."

A black orb appeared in her hands, the pointed it at Genis.

"Let's damp some of stubborn compassion and life out of you, shall we?" Genis screamed as the thin closed it's clawed hands and an orb of darkness engulfed him.

"Genis!" Raine cast a light spell, set the shadows fluttering around the room.

"Oh holy Martel…" Colette began to pray softly, her wings bathing her in soft pink light.

"No!" Lloyd smashed his blade across the things face, it caught the sword in it's hands and the bony protrusions blunted the strike. The things back twitched and eight bony things sprouted out and lashed at him. Lloyd brought his blade up, tangled them up with each other with his sole blade. He used the same trick Kratos used on him, tangled as many of the bone things he could and then holding his sword in two arms wrenched his weapon, and the extensions to the side. He didn't get all of them and those he missed dug into his sides, boring little holes in him. Gasping in pain the swordsman staggered back, clutched his stomach where two of them had really dug in deep, and stared dumbly at the blood seeping between his fingers. Kratos charged forward, swatted the tail aside that went after him and backed off from the bone things.

Lloyd pulled open a pouch, silted the skin of a red jell with the edge of his blade and rubbed it in as much as he could while keeping an eye on the fight. Genis set a wave of fireballs though the air, they smashed into the fake Kilia but she hardly winced. Raine and Colette ceased their chanting almost simultaneously and a orb of light so like the orb of dark serounded the monster. Kilia snatched the wall with her eight bone tentacle things, slithered up the side of the wall and then howled in pain as Colette's feathers streaked across the room and pinned her leg. Whimpering in pain the monster pulled out the feathers, but her slowness in doing so cost her. Kratos' sword smashed into her, they could all hear the crunch of it smash into the stone wall. The false Kilia howled, clawed at the blade as the mercenary grimly twisted.

"No… I won't…" Blood ran from the corners of it's lipless mouth. "Not to _you_…"

Kratos paid the amblings no heed, was not listening as he ripped the blade out and the creature fell to the ground a bloody mess at his feet. The tail spasomed erratically, but Lloyd saw it tense. Ignoring the pain from his half healed stomach the swordsman pulled out the knife Kratos had given him and threw. Steel arched through the air, smashed into the tail and the mercenary lifted his shield in time so it could take the spray of green liquid. He stepped back, over Dorr, ripped off his shield and threw it against a wall.

"I'll let… the monster… kill you…" It whispered, then pointed a claw a the door of the cell, the door slid open without a squeak even. It slumped forward, dead, it's last cackle hung in the air a final taunt as the dark took it.

"No!" Genis howled, knowing what was going to happen.

"Oh Gods, not again, please not again…" Lloyd whispered, lifting his blade. "Don't make me kill another innocent victim."

Colette surged past Raine, past Genis, was suddenly right in front of Kratos and Lloyd barring the monster's path from the two swordsmen.

"No!" Her wings flashed a blinding golden light that made Lloyd have to look away.

There was a howl. Something large barreled past him, there was a startled yell from the stairs, then nothing. The heavy footsteps thudded above them then they were gone.

Colette and Dorr, who had somehow survived this long, were talking. Lloyd closed his eyes, lips moving in silent prayers of thanks that he hadn't had to… Wiping his eyes he looked around, Colette was with Dorr praying, Raine was holding a crying Genis murmuring words of comfort. A hand closed over his shoulder, her jerked, then relaxed, recognizing Kratos' touch. He was gently wheeled to his feet, and the older man slung an arm under him because Lloyd's legs just didn't want to work.

He was sitting on some crates and the mercenary was working off the buttons, a roll of bandages tucked under his arm. He hissed in sympathy as he saw the stomach wounds and a nasty gash on the shoulder.

"Didn't even see that one." Lloyd muttered, looking at the gash in some surprise.

"I'll heal the stomach wounds, but the gash will just have to wait a while." Kratos pealed of the blood soaked gloves, sethis handson the twin puncture marks. Silver blue light engulfed the mercenary's hands as he held them over the injuries. Lloyd winced at the wrench he felt in his gut.

"Is it supposed to…"

"Yes, she got very deep, scratched the stomach wall, it's a damn miracle you got that throw in. If it hurts let me know, but besides that don't talk, this is very complicated work."

Lloyd meekly sat through, and ignored how his stomach twitched under the mercenary's power. Kratos' face was a scowl of concentration, remembering how Kratos could, and did, talk during his healing normally Lloyd felt a slight chill. That meant it was bad, a bad wound. Sighing, looking drained Kratos sat weekly at Lloyd's feet.

"I think that does it, there's a slight increase in the acid of your stomach so you might have some pains tonight and tomorrow, but that's all."

Lloyd muttered something, let Kratos bind the injury on his shoulder, not seeing how the older man's legs were twitching. He did notice though when Kratos almost passed out in front of him though. He slung his good arm under the man's arms and they both sat on the crates panting like worn out dogs.

"Never thought this was… going to be this hard," Kratos chuckled. "I must be getting old."

"Can't be…" Lloyd managed. "Not… too old… just ancient… when you're archaic at… fourty something… then… you'll… be too old…"

"Take that back…" Kratos tried to growl.

Raine came up to them, went past them at Colette's cries to heal Dorr. Wearily the elf joined her pupil; Lloyd just watched the exchange with half closed eyes.

A hand shook his shoulder, Raine, Colette, looked at him in concern. He must have blanked or nodded off or something…

"Dorr wants to talk to you."

Lloyd stood without thinking about it, or tried, Raine had to help him walk a little.

"My daughter?"

Lloyd gulped, feeling sick inside, and he spoke his first successful lies in years.

"She's alright."

"That's good.." Dorr smiled at him sadly. "Thank… you… My… wife medicine?"

"When we find it, we'll give it to her."

Dorr smiled, stroked his arm with shaking fingers.

"Save… them… Do what… I… could not…"

"I will," Lloyd met the dying man's eyes. "I promise."

Dorr smiled, though blood dripped from the edges of his mouth, and with a sigh he closed his eyes and died.

Xxx (end game spoilers ahead, do not continue if you haven't beat the game!)

"_Why did you lie to Dorr?"_

"_It seemed wrong, to let him die thinking his daughter was dead, you know?"_

"_I think he already knew…"_

"_Why do you say that?"_

"_Because he's a father."_

Lloyd ran the conversation over and over in his head. He should have been thinking of Dirk, he knew that. He should have been thinking about the man who had taken him in, nursed him while he was sick... Done everything and would have done anything for him. He couldn't, his mind was running circles about his human father. Sighing Lloyd leaned against Noishe's back, the dog padded on, spared him a look then seeing the expression slowed down just a little.

He joined Raine and Kratos who were talking in the back of the group.

"You heal fast Mr. Aurion." Raine was saying.

"I have some help."

"Ah, I see, you ex-sphere enhances your ability to absorb healing mana from the environment."

"Exactly, it's drawing from that mana which is the trick. It's hard, very hard, and that drains me more then any other mana manipulation."

"Then you _can_ cast spells." Raine pounced on that tidbit of information like a cat on a mouse.

"I am not very powerful, and I haven't seen a reason to do so. I prefer to use my sword."

"Hmmm… you are a mystery Mr. Aurion, I can think of no human with your wide variety of talents."

"They certainly weren't easy to pick up." Kratos growled softly. "They weren't handed to me; I learned every one of them."

"There is a saying…"

"Really," Kratos cut the elf off. "How this one for you, _don't look a gift horse in the mouth_. My past, my business, stop prying."

"Really Mr. Aurion, do you want to go back to how things were before Lloyd shook our heads and rammed the idea of getting along down our throat…"

"Noishe, what are you doing bringing Lloyd back here?" Kratos snapped at the dog.

"Mr. Aurion, Noishe is a dog, he can not talk, he can not understand. Lloyd, are you awake?"

"Mmm…" Lloyd cracked open an eye, the road bobbed up and down under Noishe's gait, the swordsman told himself not to get sick, to help that he closed his eyes

"If you are a wonder of multiple skills then Lloyd's skill of sleeping anywhere is a wonder to me. Standing up two buckets in hand, halfway up a tree, in the branches of a tree, on a roof, next door to a smithy, on Noishe's back… One of these days I'm going to find him hanging upside down…"

"Ms. Sage, let him sleep. Why don't you go ahead and join the Chosen and keep her and your brother, company."

"Which is a nice way of saying go away."

Lloyd could almost see Kratos' indifferent shrug.

"Fine, call me if he's hurting, I can do a pain block without muddling his wits."

She walked off, went ahead, and Noishe whined a series of whines and baked once.

"I see."

Noishe purred in appreciation as Kratos stroked his ears.

"Lloyd, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Lloyd mumbled into Noishe's fur.

"Lloyd," Kratos scowled, Lloyd could feel it. He burrowed his face into Noishe's mane and Kratos' angry glare tapped against him as a warning. "Noishe wouldn't bring you to me if something wasn't wrong; we both know he's smart enough to take you to who you need."

"It's stupid." Lloyd huffed into the fur, acting even more childish then normal because his wounds were hurting.

"Let me be the judge of that, what's wrong?"

"You heard Colette, how we were talking earlier?"

"Yes," Kratos' sword belt rattled as he shifted his blade around. "About what you said to Dorr?"

"Mmm… yeah," Lloyd sighed into Noishe's neck. "After… I just started thinking about Dad."

"Homesick?" Kratos patted his whole shoulder. "It happens to the most seasoned of travelers."

"A little." Lloyd blushed, not having the nerve to lift his head, he wasn't aware of how his ears went red, which was how Kratos saw the embarrassment. "But… I was thinking about my human Dad a little… Sometimes… well it's bad to my dwarf Dad… but I wonder what happened to my human Dad."

"I can not answer that Lloyd, I wish I could, but I cannot."

Lloyd dredged up the energy to lift his head, and look at the man.

"You were a Dad, what was it like?"

Kratos stared at him, pain flashed in his eyes.

"I am a father; even though… they are dead nothing changes that." Kratos sighed, looked to the scenery which was just hills and junk, he wasn't interested at it, but uncomfortable. "Why do you want to know all of a sudden?"

"Well… Maybe if I know how a Dad feels I'll get to my Dad in a way… I'm sorry… it's stupid…" Lloyd went even redder. "I'll just go to sleep or something."

"It's… not stupid, you have a right to ask that, and I don't mind answering, it's just hard to figure where to begin." Kratos was blushing? Lloyd blinked, startled by the strange expression on the man's normally controlled face. Pleasure, a little pain, and something else Lloyd couldn't read. Lloyd could felt that need, that strange tie between them, almost as if it were a physical thread.

"T…" Lloyd took a deep breath; he had made a promise to himself to not let his old friend's death run away from every memory of him. "Tylor once told me a good place to start is the beginning."

Kratos raised an eyebrow at the mention to the priest, but nodded.

"Sound advice from a wise man. When… when I discovered I was going to be a father I was shocked. I imagine that's universal, my child's birth wasn't planed, but then my wife and I were in a situation… a very bad one… where neither of us were in a good place to plan any future."

"It must have been awful." Lloyd leaned against Noishe, giving Kratos every scrap of attention he had.

"Hellish," Kratos sighed. "We managed to flee, our child was not yet born, and we had little more then the clothes on our backs, he was born on the road. I'll admit, I dared not be there at the time of his birth, and the fact I was not I feel guilty though some ten years have passed. There were monsters, dangerous monsters about. I left my wife in the care of an old friend, and came not too long after his birth. My wife was sleeping, my son was awake, he saw me and I felt…" Kratos sighed, his eyes wistful. "There are no words to explain what I felt. I would have done anything for my child." Kratos sighed. "There is a love between a parent and a child, it's strong and in my mind nothing can sever it, no circumstance, no hardship. Protective, I was probably over protective, and I certainly drove everyone around me insane with my endless babbling about my son." Kratos smiled. "One person, who if we go to Luin I plan to visit, put a gag in my mouth because he couldn't take it after I would not let up about how he was walking."

"Wow," Lloyd smiled, "I just can't… I mean you're so quiet."

"Pride, I was very proud of my child no mater what he did, no matter what he wanted to be I would have given him anything to succeed. I was so unbearable when he started talking my wife hit me with a skillet on the head." Kratos chuckled.

"Whoa, she… with a skillet?" Lloyd laughed. "That's harsh."

"Well it was around midnight at the time and he had said his first partial word around noon so she was entitled."

Both swordsmen laughed, it was so loud that the others turned and gave them a strange look. Waging his tail Noishe barked, it was a cheerful sound, and he began a prance walk. He did so until Lloyd hissed something not too polite under his breath and the dog stopped with an apologetic whine.

"There is an enthusiasm, a joy, even watching my son breath, holding him while he slept, was wonderful. My wife constantly whined that he was going to starve to death if I didn't stop holding him." Kratos sighed. "Then they start to grow up on you, you turn around twice and they're nearly adults. My son, I never had the chance to watch him grow up. Those handful of years, I have forgotten nothing of them, and I never will."

"You miss them, your son and your wife, don't you?"

"When you think of home perhaps you think of a place, most do, but to me my home was with my family. The place was irrelevant, so long as they were with me everything was alright."

Lloyd gulped, feeling a tight lump in his throat, missed his human Dad his human Mom, it was like a knife the pain of not knowing.

"I wish I could have asked my Dad… If he felt like that about me, I wish I could have asked my Mom… I wish I could remember."

He lowered his face into Noishe' mane, gulped a few times and tried to pull himself together. What kind of baby would he be if Kratos, who knew and lived with the loss every day of his life, saw him bawling because he didn't remember? Slowly, absently, a hand wove through his hair and stroked. He hiccupped sharply, causing his stomach and shoulder to hurt. The hand gently stroked, caressed, soothed the pain, as did the soft spoken words.

"It is not wrong to cry, there is no shame in it. It is not wrong to grieve; we spend our whole lives with grief. We must live on for those who have fallen before us. We take what they have given us, and we live for them as well as ourselves."

"How come you're so smart?" Lloyd whipped at his eyes, looked around, no one had seen it, Raine was lecturing and Genis and Colette were paying attention to her, the whole world forgotten.

"Experience," Kratos withdrew his hand as if it had been doing something it wasn't supposed to.

"That's a horrible way to get smart like this."

"It's the only way." Kratos shrugged, looking uncomfortable once again.

There was a long silence between them, where the road slid by and bobbed in time with Noishe's easy gait.

"Is it wrong, not knowing?"

"No," Kratos answered quietly. "What is wrong is when you feel no guilt, no… anything about the not knowing. Because when you give up on remembering, you give up on those who you have fogotten."

"No one wanted me to remember." Lloyd said, his eyes sliding shut. "They wanted me to forget. The mayor wanted me to forget so I'd be like everyone else and live with him because that would have made people like him. Phadria wanted me to forget so that I'd become a Martel worshiper, even Colette wanted me to forget and be like everyone else. I don't think Genis understands it at all… And Raine wanted me to forget because when I remembered I got sick. Tylor was angry with everyone when they made me try to forget, or when they'd laugh at me for remembering a little and telling people about it. Sometimes they called me crazy, moon touched."

Lloyd's eyes were closed, so he did not see the anger in Kratos' eyes, he could not feel it for it wasn't directed at him.

"I think even Dad wanted me to forget. Because when I remembered, I would look. I think that's why I ran away, because I was looking for them."

"Perhaps you were."

"Do you think, someday I'll meet my human Dad?" Lloyd mumbled, his voice becoming slurred. "Someday… I'd like too."

Kratos was quiet for a long moment after Lloyd had fallen asleep, he then stroked Lloyd's hair. No one noticed, as Raine was starting another lecture, no one noticed them for they were shadows of the group for a time. Kratos took advantage of that time to smooth Lloyd's wild hair down and blink back a few tears.

"Someday, when everything is at peace, I hope you do as well." Kratos muttered, "And when you meet him, I hope you can accept what he is."

Noishe looked at him, wagged his tail and winked, as if to say.

_I know him, he will._


	16. Crimson path 1st ranch

A/N I hate hate hate Magnius' Ranch, it's -in my mind- an annoying running back and forth pointless drizzle ranch that did I say I hate? anyways I skimp on some of it because I just want to get it _over _with and I don't have time to replay the area for all the details. Sorry if that disappoints, I'll try not to make the story suffer for my skipping but... I only have so much patience and time after all. I meat-ed Magnius' character out somewhat –you'll get the joke if you read the chapter- added in the fight to make up for the suckiness of the ranch. Mainly Magnius has been a roadblock, I totally forgot about him in my notes and have everything after him to the tower outlined (mostly) so things should get better here on out. (One may hope) Kinda enjoy… and hopefully I wont get flames from Magnius lovers? (Hint hint…) Oh and the mystery of incoming teleporting minions solved!

Till next time Kasan (who is hiding under a rock now wearing flame retardant garments…) out:)

Crimson path

Chapter 16

"Tell me of the sky." She snuggled in his arms, looked at the thin slit windows where they could see a glimmer of that sky. She had seen it before, but never as he had seen it. Smiling his kissed her cheek and she relaxed as his words lapped over her. Took away the terror of the world for just a moment.

"It leads to eternity. It changes, shifts, from the hue of pale sapphire to the ebony night nicked with silver, it forever changes and goes beyond that which we can see. Our world is a speck in the eyes of eternity, our lives a glint on that speck. It is a constant, a certainty, in a world that will forever change hands and ways the sky is eternity, infinity, and a certainty."

"You almost sound as if you worship it."

"In a way... I guess I do… Not seeing it as much, it's almost as holy as Martel Herself."

"There's so little sky here... I wish I could see the whole sky again."

"You will, someday soon, you will I promise, like they promised me that we would be saved I promise you the same thing."

Xxx

There was no sky, no light save the Hellish glowing orbs embedded in the ceiling. Lloyd looked to Kratos who was leading them into the steel maze. They had slipped through the door, Dorr's words having served as thier faithful guild so far. He was there and not there, as Tylor had been for him during that long night after the attack. Neil clung in their shadows, seemed to hide amongst them, but he clearly wasn't one of them. When Kratos put a hand up to order a halt and prowl ahead Lloyd had to snag the aide's arm, to keep him from going ahead.

When they fought against the Desian patrol he rushed ahead, Gods knew he tried but he was noisy and... well rash. Kratos nudged him once, pointed to Neil as he swung and posed while swinging. They needed no words. Lloyd flushed despite himself.

"I was _not_ that bad!"

The mercenary only chuckled in good humored mockery at Neil and at Lloyd's old skill. Grumbling under his breath Lloyd went to save the man, as Kratos was making him look after the man. Looking after him was proving to be a handful. He had to keep an eye on Niel and eye on Colette, an eye on Genis and an eye on Raine, plus an eye on the enemy in front of him. Basically he needed three more eyes. They entered a large box like room, Desian's standing, talking, gossiping, there was the hiss of a sword being drawn. Lloyd grabbed Niel's arm, three other rooms had taught him that this was the only way to make him stop, and dragged the PalmaCosta assistant general behind him as Kratos spotted another side hall and made them run for it.

Xxx

"They took Horus into the crimson halls..." Came a soft sigh, a mothers sigh as this had happened to her other two sons, now that the last was one was gone there was nothing left. "They take all the strong ones there."

"So _he_ wills is." Murmured an old man's voice, "We may not defy_ his_ will... it must be left to the hands of the militia. They will come.. They will come..."

It was a chant, a chant in all the cells, a promise that echoed in every heart, and so those with heart looked through the glass wall with hope, while those without looked at nothing at all.

Xxx

"Here, Dorr said they should be down and look, stairs heading down." Lloyd heard Raine mutter. The elf woman was not phased by the mass number of Desian's, not at all disturbed by the patrols, and he understood why. You could think that this was just some military base, with the steels walls and guards. But he had seen, as had Genis, the truth of the Ranches. It was a horror, a building horror for them, it built with each step, each remembrance of what they had glimpsed behind the steel fence in the Iselia ranch. Genis shivered, stayed by his side, Kratos was keeping an eye on Neil and Colette. Raine was oblivious, or to them it seemed, with Raine you could never be too sure though.

A wall sighed, the steel slid apart like a mouth and two Desian's stepped out. They were talking in some strange musical language and Colette gasped. They turned at the sound, stared at the humans as the humans in turn stared at them.

"Gathsuun, uru'sava gathsunn!"

"He's going to call the guards!" Colette yelled.

Lloyd drew his sword, Niel blinked at how fast it was, perhaps startled that the easy going simple kid did so with a professional air.

"ENEMY SCANNED..." They turned and saw a floating glow nose metal monster.

"Oh what a fascinating specimen of tech-"

"Not now Ms. Sage!" Kratos growled. "I have the machine, Lloyd, Neil, take the guards!"

Neil needed no encouragement on that score; he had his blade in hand in a blink. He was all of two steps behind Lloyd, the righteous fury of his people's suffering guiding his blade, fueling his viciousness. Lloyd swatted the enemies sword aside in the small hall there wasn't enough room to get a good swing in, so Lloyd dropped his blade and drew the new knife Kratos had given him. The guard croaked at the steel in his throat, clawed at the hilt and slumped against the wall in his death. Warm, wet, red, spilled across his hands, he shuddered whipped his hands violently on the front of his tunic. Neil was having no problems, just cut into the Desian and was going to keep at it long after the guy was dead. It wasn't so bad with a sword, you had some distance but the knife the man had died for all intents and purposes in his arms…

Lloyd kicked himself, now was not the time for that either.

"Kid, you alright?" Neil walked up to him, ignorant of the bloody sword in his hands and the mangled corpse a few feet away.

No not ignorant, indifferent.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

_"You hold a blade you deal death, if you can't deal with that then stay behind in PalmaCosta_."

"I'll be fine."

He couldn't stay behind, no where because no where was safe. Magnius' attack on PalmaCosta was proof of that. There was no safe place anywhere anymore, he had to make himself safe and protect everyone else.

_Sometimes protect means kill…_

He was just going to have to get used to it.

"Lloyd you look awful pale." Colette whispered.

Lloyd turned to Colette, she looked horrified, but was comforted by her faith that had all the answers. Genis looked sick too, but Raine was there, and Raine was strong enough to not break or look scared in front of her brother. They held on for faith and family, he didn't have that. They could be horrified, could cringe back from the killing, but he couldn't, not if he wanted to keep them safe.

"I'll be alright." Lloyd cracked a slight smile though all he wanted to really do was get sick. "Let's get out of here as fast as we can alright?"

Raine nodded, looked at the bodies with a disgusted horror, she put herself between it and her brother and Colette.

"Yes, this facility is not a place I'd like to linger in over long."

Kratos brushed past them, eyes cold, indifferent as they brushed past the corpses, he looked to Neil then at last Lloyd. Kratos saw, understood and nodded. He put his hand on Lloyd's shoulder, offered support for a few seconds then jerked his head. The Raine, Genis and Colette, were going on ahead, they were falling behind. Had they walked past, said something to him on passing? He wasn't sure and that blank scared him.

"It gets easier." Neil muttered, then went to catch up with the others.

"Does it?" Lloyd muttered, falling in step behind the Assistant of the Governor-General.

"Yes, and no." Came Kratos' voice, he'd totally forgotten about the man.

There was no assurance, no promises, Kratos' words were contradiction and should have been unsettling.

But they weren't, like the man himself they were cryptic, vague, but a comfort.

Well they gave him something to think about while running through the halls of the ranch at least, and for once as long as anyone had ever known him, though the spans of hiding and waiting he did not say one word about being bored.

Xxx

"Assistant Governer General Neil is here!" One of the prisoners gasped. A hubbub of hope rang out, over lapped the litany of despair that came as soft whispers from the walls itself it seemed. "He's brought the Militia with him!"

Cell doors were opened, one stubborn one pried open with Raine's staff. Prisoners, only a hundred humans in all, boiled out of the glass cages, smiles cutting across skeletal faces, tears streaking pure paths down soiled faces. There were only a hundred, in the attack fifty of the people of PalmaCosta had been declared missing, there had been thirty in the pilgrimage group, yet there were only one hundred, and not all of them hailed from PalmaCosta, some had the growling accents of the Trietians, others had the strange bouncy gait and talk of those from Izoold. Only twenty of them were from Palma Cost. Out of that twenty was Chocolat. Genis hugged her; the small elf and human seemed to be fused together. Not knowing Genis the girl was surprised but by no means unresponsive to the elf child's cheer. Lloyd and Neil wandered amongst the prisoners, passing out food, water, all of it having been brought from Palma Costa's army, for on his days of lone watch the Assistant had dared abandon his post to hunt down the scattered army and get supplies from the wandering bands of survivors. They waited, the survivors, a few ragged handful he had found, in the wilds to spirit away these prisoners back to the city. Grimly, some distance away from them all Kratos watched, watched as Raine healed the wounded, watched as Genis energized those who had seemed to have lost all hope, and watched as the soon to be General Neil offered hope and instructions aplenty.

"We'll split up." Lloyd said to the questions on what to do next. "I think that'd be best. Neil, Colette and Genis can make sure everyone gets out safe, me Raine and Kratos can I dunno… Make them focus on us instead?"

"Offer a decoy?" Raine's lips quirked into an ironic smile. "Someone had us do that once before, remember."

"It'll be different, because we'll be doing it not… someone else."

"I agree let us keep the children out of this as much as possible." Kratos nodded.

"Whoa wait!" Genis put his hands on his hips. "_Children_, we went over this in the first temple, we aren't children!"

"Lloyd went with me so I'm going with Lloyd!" Colette protested, and looked surprised when Lloyd didn't back her up.

"No Chosen, you will remain with the human refugees." Kratos said in a chilly voice that made everyone, ex-captives and all, cringe away from him.

"Lloyd, you can't be agreeing with him!" Genis sputtered. "Not with this, not when it's important!"

Lloyd stared at the floor, fiddled around with his sword.

"I… you'd leave me your best friend…" Genis blinked a few times real fast.

"It's not like that. I need you to keep Colette safe for me, and all these other people too." Lloyd moved to put a hand on Genis' shoulder but the small elf shrugged him of.

"You're lying! You're just siding with Kratos because he's a human!" Genis flared then lost his rage and sulked. "You humans are all the same…"

Lloyd took a deep breath, did not turn this into a fight. He wasn't going to let it end like this because he knew -like Genis knew but didn't want to know- how dangerous this was.

"It's not like that Genis, just keep Colette safe for me OK?"

Genis didn't respond, stared at his boots and said nothing, even when they said they were leaving. From far away he heard Chocolat say she was going with them. When they left he lifted a tear streaked face and gulped a few times. No one judged him, no one thought what he had said or done was bad, maybe they felt safer with him about, who knew. All he knew that once, in a lifetime of having all the right answers and knowing it all… he didn't know. Except now he had this pit in his gut, a sick pit that told him that maybe, just this once, he had messed up. He had just messed up bad. It wasn't like a test where you can study for it and retake it, you couldn't retake it, couldn't retake anything in life. Meekly he followed behind the prisoners; his only company amongst so many was that sick feeling that was getting worse with every step he took.

Xxx

An arrow hissed in the air, he blocked it with the flat of his sword, rolled the hilt around in his hands, no longer did the flat point at the man before him, the edge faced his foe. Less then a heartbeat's time, the edge caught the light and gleamed with a malicious humor that only the inanimate can have. He took a step forward, determination filling him. There was no room or sweeping strokes, no room for elegance, for dodging, or disarming. It was slaughter, a butchers' work. He stabbed, used his sword like a knife and did a two handed stab and the man before him crumpled. The blade had hit, a perfect shot, and now what others may have dubbed a heartless monster now was truly heartless. He ripped his blade out, the Desian crumpled like a broken child's toy in the hall. He stepped over it, ignoring the growing crimson pool, Raine hopped over the body with a nervous gulp and he led them, his blade trailing a red path behind him.

"Lloyd, are you alright?"

"Professor… stop asking…" Lloyd whispered around the thick feeling in his throat, he looked ahead, dared not look back. "Just stop asking…"

He dully walked forward, deeper in, his blade leaving a widening trail of crimson behind him. Slowly he was turning the crimson hall from a title used by the Desian's who took humans through this hall to the teleport pad leading deeper into the ranch into a grim reality.

"How much farther?"

"Not much…" Chocolat clung to Raine, who was taking to the young woman as she warmly as Genis had. She held the younger woman's hand in her own, and by that they helped each other go forward.

"The first is the most bitter, the taste either sticks or fouls in the mouth, and that first taste it never changes and stays until the end of life." Kratos murmured.

Raine paused, turned to him, out of all of them only she understood the horror he was alluding to.

"My Goddess Kratos, are you not at all concerned! It's your job to do this, not him."

"As I have, it was his decision to take my post for a while. He has made his decision; he must now live with it."

"He did it out of concern for _you_." Raine hissed.

"I am aware of that." Kratos stared at Lloyd who had halted, but was adamant about not turning around. "As is he." There was for a second a haunted look in the man's eyes. "Do not think I don't grieve this Ms. Sage, or that I am not concerned. I will keep an eye on the situation and step in as I see fit." He brushed past the two women, loosening up his blade from its sheath. "As it is keep your nose out of a matter you can not even hope to comprehend." Kratos growled softly as he passed. "_Lloyden, joua mer yal!"_

"What?" Lloyd turned looked to Kratos in confusion.

"Sorry… habit." The surprise had been intentional, the strange second language had been used to shock Lloyd out of his morbid thoughts, or so Raine hoped. "You've done enough for now." The mercenary said calmly, "I will take point."

Lloyd nodded, allowed the older man to take over for him, he no longer protested about splitting the task fifty-fifty.

In sharing this… burden, Riane knew, her pupil would never protest again.

Xxx

"I have to go."

"Kid, this isn't the time to be needing to go to the privy." Neil protested. "Just hold out a little…"

"No! Ung you stupid human, not that!" Genis stomped a foot, a comical if somewhat Desian like out burst coming from his lips. "I need to go back, to my friends, I can't stay here!"

"You'll leave us undefended?" Neil asked coldly.

"N… I don't want to but…" Genis squirmed, his inner turmoil making him writhe physically with indecision.

"Go ahead; I was just going to ask you why you hadn't gone already." Neil cracked a smile. "I can't say I like you pointy ears too much, as you're half Desian, but then I am too so I don't have a right to say anything." Neil shifted his bloody sword. "It's a clean two bare rooms from here and then we're out, go, if you run you might be able to catch them in time."

"Thanks…" Genis considered, and then made up his mind. "Don't tell Colette, please, she…" Genis considered that, considered that what he'd be if he did the exact same thing everyone else was doing to Colette, trying to keep her out of danger even if she didn't want to be kept out of it. "No, scratch that. Hey, Colette, I'm heading back, wanna come?"

"What!" Colette ran to him. "You're going, but the Professor and Mr. Kratos and Lloyd said…"

Grinning from ear to pointed ear, not feeling all that sick anymore, Genis laughed.

"Like that stopped Lloyd when the Mayor, your Dad, Raine, Kratos, and his Dad, told him not to go to the temple, or not to go on this journey!"

"Alright!" Colette chirped, his enthusiasm bouncing off of her, "let's go! I've always wanted to say that it sounds all Lloydish!"

Without another word the two raced back deeper into the Ranch, Neil watched them go with a chuckle, and went back to doing what he had been before, leading his people to their salvation. As the Chosen would lead her friends to theirs.

Xxx

"Well well…" A emerald hued couch hovered over nothing, it spun lazily to reveal the speaker. "What do we have, a bunch of vermin running around my ranch? Animals are so thoughtful when they come to the slaughtering shed all by themselves." The man with fire hued eyes and hair smiled at them with his jagged looking teeth. He lazed on the couch, a bored sprawl that strained his skin tight clothes and highlighted every one of his muscles and made a mockery of the pure repute of the white fabric that clung to him. An ax was slung over his shoulder, it was so much a part of him it seemed a part of the predator's lazy sprawl. That brought, much to her discomfort, an image of Kratos to her mind. The human mercenary too sprawled lazily when he thought nothing of the topic being brought before him, his weapon so much a part of him that he never parted with them even in slumber. Magnius was such a man, was a warrior.

"A snowy white sheep and a pair of wolves. One," Magnius drew a dagger filed his nails. "Is some old ragged decrepit piece of shit fallen hunter who's guiding the unbloodied pup around by his nose, both are escorting a sheep that pales at a bit of crimson, kind of funny that."

Magnius leered at her, telling her without words what would become of the 'sheep' if she survived the coming fight. She had accepted it however, known and accepted even as she had agreed with Kratos' mad scheme to attack the Cardinal. There was no greater distraction then the destruction of a leader, a corrupt body would fail when the mind behind it was deceased. Chocolat shivered as those blood hued eyes slid over her, but she stood on her own, brave girl, braver then so many humans. How many would justifiably cringe away in terror when that gaze settled on them? All of Iselia she would bet.

"And along in their shadows comes a rat… But I don't have time for rats, I'm more akin to wolves." Magnius let his gaze flick over to Lloyd.

"How was it boy, your first blood, did it catch in your craw or was it sweet going down?"

"Shut up!" Lloyd snarled, drawing his sword, Magnius laughed richly at that.

"Sweet as sin, like crimson velvet hmmm? Fight makes the blood just roar in you, everything else…" Magnius tossed the knife aside lazily and it clattered on the steel floor behind him. "Becomes nothing, don't worry it gets a Hell of a lot easier as time goes on. The taste it's a bit harsh the first few times but you get used to it fast enough. Course you wont have that time…"

"So you are little more then a voyeur?" Kratos sneered, his hand gripping the hilt of his blade.

The Desian smirked, drew another dagger and lined it up with Lloyd's chest, tension rippled those muscles. Lloyd snapped his blade up in a defensive stance and Magnius relaxed, tossed the dagger so it spun end over end and caught the hilt easily enough. Raine had seen Lloyd do similar tricks with knives as a child when he got bored at a dinner table. Seeing it the first time had made dinner at the Irving's a rather alarming affair during the first visit. Chocolat gritted her teeth, looked ready to attack the Desian with tooth and nail. Firmly Raine snatched the girls arm, bravery was well and good, but such an attack could only be suicidal. Not one to push odds Raine forced the girl behind her, and found the dagger pointing at her.

"You think protecting her makes you strong, you don't know strength. All that is is this little sheep…" He turned the blade over in his hands, drew a line on his palm with a wide smile on his face, his eyes gleamed in the mana fueled lights as the red dripped along the edges of his palm and fell to the floor. "Everything else, that's a lie." The man all but purred at the sight of his own blood, his voice going husky, thick with lust. He licked his lips, took a mocking sip off the edge of the blade in a manner a Palma Costa elite would sip the edge of their cup in a toast. He threw the dagger aside, stood and pulled his axe from it's straps along his back.

"Why don't you do the world a favor," Raine snapped, pulling her staff from it's straps over her back and bringing it in front of her, even as Kratos drew his blade. "Take up that knife again and practice more self mutilation say, around your throat."

Magnius laughed. "Do _yourself_ a favor vermin, think before you let my words snare you." He smashed a button that protruded from the of the chair and the air shivered, from either side of the large cylinder shaped room materialized Desians all armored and armed to the teeth. Confident that he could at least watch a good slaughter, a bit disappointed none of them had challenged him directly, Magnius snapped his fingers and one of the guards came up to him a bottle of PalmaCosta's finest and a haunch of rare meet on a plate. Reclining back into his hovering couch the Desian took a draw from the bottle, a mouthful from the meat and made himself comfortable for the upcoming spectacle.

Xxx

"Genis, why are there Desian's disappearing in this room?"

"Wha?" Genis paused, tuned and poked into the room that Colette had paused by. There was a plate, a glowing plate and Desians armed like no one's business were stepping on it and disappearing. Actually there were two plates, one reading "left" and the other proclaiming "right" and they strolled out of the armory fully geared up, stepped on a disk and disappeared.

"It looks kinda important you think?" Colette frowned, baffled by the scene, as was Genis. Five more soldiers went on the disk, responding to the beeping red light on the wall. Right by the door was a switch, a tiny hand sized switch, and a thin wire ran from it to the flashing red light.

"I'm going to do something Colette, and if it works you have to promise me to never tell Raine." He whispered.

"Alright!" Colette whispered back, eyeing the guards wearily.

Genis then broke the one rule Raine had threatened to beat him senseless if he ever did break. He reached out and with a trembling hand pulled the switch, effectively breaking his oath not to play with anything that even looked like magi-technology. The lights went dead and the soldiers looked baffled.

"I guess their dead already…" One of them rumbled from under his armor.

"Now what?" Queered another.

"You know technically it is my lunch break." Came a surly voice, from the back.

There came an annoyed grumble from the assembled guards, guess Magnius wasn't all that nice when he ordered them to go fight someone. Colette muffled her giggle with a hand and Genis restrained his with a knuckle. They all went out a side door, only one of them went to the pads and frowned.

"What the Hell… something's wrong here…" He tapped his helmet, his back turned to the door and he did not see how it opened.

Xxx

"What the Hell! Damn you worthless vermin!" Magnius howled, smashing the button.

Raine set off a light spell at the man, knocked him from his chair while Lloyd and Kratos dueled the last of the swordsmen. He picked himself up from the floor and snarled at her.

"How dare you, you double crossing bitch!" His ax seemed to materialize in his hands and Raine leveled her staff at him.

"Has it ever crossed your mind you broke I yourself in your juvenile… excuse me... infantile fit of rage?"

He snarled, "You'll be the first to die!"

"How predictable, you are little more then a child, a bully, just as I expected…" She quipped in her '_teacher_' voice. Despite her air of confidence she prayed Lloyd or Kratos would get done with the Cardinal's fodder fast and help her. Infantile mindset aside, she was grossly over matched by this man's strength.

Xxx

"Hi!" Colette skipped out from behind the door and the guard hopped.

"Hu… Human!" He snarled, going for his sword.

"Oh no, we're Desians!" Colette chirped, and Genis nearly lost his jaw as Colette lied to the man. "We're in training! See I'm human and he's an elf so as a pair that makes us a half elf right?" She smiled at him and the guard was sputtering. "Anyway our teacher said we were supposed to see what all the fancy ummm glowing whatchmacallit-ology?"

"Magi-technology does" Genis added forcefully. "This was the last room in the tour but then the alarms went off and he left us so we thought we'd finish it ourselves!"

The guard gapped, blinked and muttered something about never touching a drop of spirits again.

"What's it do?" Genis asked in his best '_I'm going to whine like no tomorrow if I'm not told_' tone.

"What?" The guard sputtered.

"Is your maladjusted social skills a by product of your berserk pupitary gland or is it the brain cell choking qualities in the food supplement they pass off as food here?" Genis chirped, this was kind of funny. "I asked, what's it do?"

"It's a teleporter to Lor- urm…. Why the hell am I telling you that?" The sword came out and humor factor went to zero at that point. The sword was longer then Colette was tall.

"Oh wow, it teleports, just like the temple…" Colette went to the one marked "left" and tripped, she rolled off of it fast enough to avoid the consequences of her fall but the disk was shattered and spiting electricity. "Opps…"

"You just… broke…" The guard squeaked.

You know having a brain under that helmet might help you talk." Genis suggested brightly, grabbing and half dragging Colette to the remaining disk. As the spell went off to take them away he dropped a fireball spell and cook the disk what he didn't plan was that he'd cook their toes in the bargain.

xxx

"Oww oww oww!" Magnius looked to see his newest guards had either shrunk or mere children had broken his teleport disk and had brought themselves over after. Hopping from foot to foot the small wizard stomped out the small lickets of flame around his now bare feet. "Oww that was really stupid!"

"Genis!" Raine howled. "How? What?"

"Owie, that hurt!" Colette hopped from foot to foot, forgetting yet again that she had wings that she could draw them out and hover to spare her feet. She wasn't as cooked as Genis but did have a few nasty looking blisters.

Magnius snarled, his eyes slid over Colette and they narrowed. He bulled past on of his guard, killing one of his own men that didn't get out of the way fast enough, and suddenly was right in front of the children. Axe prepped to swing, to cut through them both like they were fuel for the fire.

"Genis, Colette, run!" Raine yelled, ducking behind her staff to block the overhand swing of the swordsman who had taken Magnius' place in being her assailant.

"We aren't running!" Colette drew her wings and her throwing rings, she used one of them a futile looking attack. The weapons skimmed on the edge of the desian's chain mail armor leaving a trail of sparks and a small gash in the chains. Magnius merely flinched, swung.

"No!" Lloyd howled, forsook all forms of swordsmanship and shoved his opponent back. The attack should have done little more then make the man take a step back. Even in the throes of fury driven strength it should have been as nothing. the desian swordsman was larger and by far more experienced then Lloyd, the half elf was wearing a shell of enchanted armor that the steel blade was only scratching on contact, and all Lloyd had been doing was to stall and hold the guards off until Kratos could free himself up to make a kill. Lloyd shoved, physically bulled his way into his armored foe, a thin trail of silver blue mana trailed behind him, rushed in front of him, smashed into the desian and was so strong it seemed to pick the man up and cast him into room's far wall. There was an audible 'crunch' as the armor caved in on contact and the man in it went still. Lloyd did not watch the desian fall, gripping his blade like a spear Lloyd thrust into the desian's back, just as Genis' spell went off.

The steel split with a heart stopping crack, stones were spit out of the ground, smashed into the weapon and while Magnius was stronger then most men he was no match for the pressure of the very earth. His ax rose, was pushed up by the attack, and he cursed as it sheared deep into the ground scant inches from the pair of children. The blade was barely impeded by the chain mail, for the material was naturally holey and designed to take the edge off of slashes, not the force behind a thrust. The sword sank home and the man whirled, smashed his massive fist into the young man and literally sent Lloyd flying back. Dazed the swordsman tried to get up but he stopped clutching his side gasping in pain.

Raine smashed her staff into the armored skull of her last foe and the half elf crumpled at her feet. Years of practice smacking Genis and Lloyd when they got in trouble seemed to have accumulated to make her develop a perfect aim when striking down her enemies. By the Goddess they better pray they didn't make it through this, she'd make this barbarian's wraith into nothing compared to her own. They'd know not to do anything remotely dangerous ever again!

"Photon!" The Desian rolled off her attack of stinging light, ripped the sword from his back, and threw that aside.

"Filthy unclean Chosen…" He rasped his blood hued eyes wide in fury. "The desecration of my ranch has come at your hands and you'll pay for it!"

"Your ranch," Chocolat crowed, considering Kratos was all but sacrificing them all to keep her safe she wasn't in a position to honestly crow anything. "Is a desecration to _life_ itself you bastard!"

"Guard her!" Kratos barked at Raine, slamming his blade into the last swordsman and kicking the twitching corpse off of his blade.

From what? Raine wondered looking at all the dead Desian's pooled around them, their expressions contorted with surprise, pain, their limbs a pool of limp fallen guards, their blood a red sea. She did not see the glowing flickers of light from the right hand side of the room. Muttering the words of a spell Raine tossed a handful of healing mana at Lloyd and the boy managed to stand with that help. Lloyd cast her a thankful look, then limped over to where his sword had landed and stood up.

"Stay back!" Kratos barked, seeing Lloyd was going to go after Magnius again. "You're in no conditi-"

"Like Hell I'm sitting this out!" Lloyd flared before the man could even finish his sentence.

Kratos considered Lloyd's weakened condition; a familiar steel hard glint came into his eyes. The long sword smacked into the young man's un protected head, Lloyd sprawled out on the floor with a moan.

"That is for the incident at Efreet's temple." Kratos said to the dazed boy, stepped over the red clad child, then went after Magnius who was trying to now get his ax through Genis and Colette's combined mana shield. He whirled hearing Kratos' approach, brought his weapon about and Kratos blocked the behomith weapon with his own, turned aside the swing and stabbed with his own weapon. Magnius stepped back out of the range of the attack, lifted his blade to deliver a chop that would shear through a boulder. The sides of the room were tight, caged in glass with an opening that moved when the chair's front swerved Kratos was trapped. He could not side step or even pull back enough to fully dodge the strike…

Raine called on the light spell, and though tears sprung to his eyes in response to Raine's spell Magnius brought the blade down. A line of crackling light took the ax, ran across the steel. The force of the spell element hitting its opposite natural element set off an explosion that threw Kratos back -out of range of the attack thank the Goddess- and set the desian's already spiky hair to dancing on edge. Roaring Magnius dropped his weapon, nursed his singed hand and reached out grabbing the small wizard who dared attack him.

Squeaking in terror Genis was held in one of those hands, and the clenching of those think fingers would lead to a broken neck, the exact same death that had taken Tylor in PalmaCosta. They all froze, Kratos trembled at the sight of a child in those blood stained hands. Raine wailed out in despair, seeing how she had failed the priest and could do nothing save watch her little brother die if the same man again clenched his hands. Colette whimpered in terror, prayers to her Goddess her last shield against the horrors about her. Groaning Lloyd rubbed his head, was coming too.

Magnius looked at them and smiled.

"No one moves or I crush this runt's skull to pulp!" Even Lloyd half out of it went still at that threat. "Boys, come right on in!" The slight flashes of light on the other half of the room flared and five Desian's stepped out of the very air it seemed. "Take the girl, and one of you be good and turn on the projector would you?" Magnius grinned around the pain of his wounds. "It's time for a little lesson so these animals can learn their proper place. Don't move woman, don't even breath on hint of mana on my men, or your kid dies."

There was a scream, Raine watched only her brother who was squirming in that huge hand. She was unable to even find the heart to bring her staff around to defend Chocolat, not with that threat before her. Shaking, she only watched her brother stubbornly bite at Magnius' hand and try to squirm free.

"Don't let them take her Raine, please don't!" Genis wailed, clawing at the arm, fighting with what little he had. He was too scared to even call on his mana, or too drained, so he was fighting tooth and nail.

"Be a good little rat," Magnius shook Genis till his head spun and his brains felt all rattled. "Shut up! You know what I'll do to him sheep." He spat at her, his red eyes burning. "Make him stop struggling!"

"Genis, stop!" Raine gasped around her tears. "You have to stop. This isn't doing anything to help."

And her voice, loved, filled with a calm authority, it made him go still.

"Hold it." Magnius barked at his men who had the struggling Chocolat a mere handful of steps away from the teleporting pad. "I know this runt and you…" Magnius grinned at the kneeling Iselian swordsman. "You're the Angelous Project! This _is_ rich. A murderer and a runaway experiment both wanted and at my very feet writhing in their defeat!"

"Experiment…" Lloyd muttered to himself, a need in his eyes mixed with a repugnance for the being before him that could answer that need. Anger chased those things away; he sprung to his feet, sword drawn. "We aren't murderers! You are!"

"Going to kill me boy? I'm quite a step up from that old woman you bumped off. I don't think you could take it."

Chocolat stiffened, looked at them all in horror.

"I almost forgot. You have killed before haven't you? Oh yes in Iselia, you killed Forcystus' guards then you killed the vessel of the demon seed. That poor unfortunate woman, she just didn't deserve what she got from you, she's nice to you and what do you do slide a sword in her guts? But then that's how humans are, that's how hunters are aren't they Lloyd A- ah I almost said something I wasn't supposed to now didn't I?" Magnius laughed, shook Genis just for the sake of causing pain.

"Put him down!" Lloyd roared, so furious his sword arm was shaking.

"What's the matter boy, do I have to say it? Fine, I will." Magnius looked to Chocolat. "Ms. Chocolat Wyrth," He sneered in a mocking version of PalmaCosta's elite class introduction, "if I may introduce you to the human that killed your grandmother, Lloyd _Irving_." Magnius laughed at the human woman's pain, at Lloyd's false last name, he laughed at all the animals before him that looked at him with such pale bloodless faces only suited to animals on the slaughter house.

"It wasn't like that!" Genis wailed, and was silenced when Magnius smashed him into the wall.

"No, you can't… I…"

Magnius dropped the comatose elf to the floor with a smirk, kicked him aside.

"You killed my grandma?"

"Tell her boy, how soft aged flesh is when the blade passes through, how sweet the blood..."

"Yes," Lloyd looked at the ground. "I did, but it's not like how he said it... she was turned…"

"Get me out of here; get me away from these monsters!" Chocolat snapped at the guards.

"Raine do something!" Lloyd wailed, seeing she was closest, that she was the only one who _could_ do something.

Chocolat's glare was like a slap in the face, her hatred; her passion was too strong to be reasoned against. Seeing that all too familiar hate in the human girl's eyes Raine could do nothing against it, she was as frozen as she had been when Genis lay in the murderous barbarian's arms. They dragged Chocolat to the disk and were gone in a heartbeat.

"All those human's you rescued, they'll all be like that old hag you tried to save, I'll rip out their ex-spheres, then I'll set them lose on PalmaCosta. Right after I'm done with you…"

Xxx

Neil paced the room that had suddenly become a cage. The walls over the open looking doors had been up for a while. _Stupid humans_, the trap seemed to say, _Caught like a batch of rabbits seeing the light and running for it thinking it's safe_... Those around him screamed and smashed into them with fist and body and the walls did not come down. Steel was not the softest of materials, did not relent easily to the fists of the desperate.

"Damn it, what are we doing wrong?" Neil snarled to himself on his fifth or sixth rotation around the room.

"Ya be holdin' yer line oh thought at the ready yer Generalship." The sailor, a massive man with thick flowing beard smirked, despite his duration at the Ranches he was still a massive man and still bore signs of managing ship and crew on the most rugged of seas. "If the damn thin' be goin' out of the floor ups-like then why in _Hell_ aren't we pushin' it down?"

Neil slapped his forehead, feeling the prime ass for not even thinking that.

"You heard the man!" Neil called to his people, those on this side of the inside of the door and those soldiers who had been pounding on it with a battering ram on the outside. "Get a handhold and bring lets bring this bastard down!"

Xxx

"Security breached, main gates breached!" Howled the dead voice from the ceiling. Angels had pure voices, voices of softness and peace, the silken underbelly of summer day clouds could not rival the pure white hue or softness of an angel's voice. None here could mistake that dull grating monotone for any angel. They all knew that cry even if they didn't understand it; it was the dead call that called the equally dead soul-ed desians.

It wasn't down; all of them pushing down on both ends had gotten it to go down a fourth of the way. Well that wasn't a problem, well too much of one. Neil crouched, ordered those with strength left in them to climb over him. Luckily most of the people weren't so far gone as to not be able to go for the chance to get away when it lay before them, to those who couldn't he pushed them up with his own hands, the Izoold sailor helping him as well.

"Neil!" A hand snaked through the pure white light of the sun, ready to pull it up. Armored it was a soldiers.

"I don' be thinkin' I'll be for fittin' through that wee little hole." The Izoold said to Neil's desperate look. "You best be goin' up now lad, leave the points ta me."

Neil smiled, thinking of the small elf child going back, of the passionate swordsman who after losing his closest friend had stood by the man's name even as when the ex-priests' reputation was ripped to tatters. Neil found he could smile for the first time in days.

"Like Hell I am… Soldiers, get those Civ's back to the city proper! Goddess grant you speed and watch over you!" Neil drew his sword, barked out a few more orders and listened to the soldiers walk off with the protesting civilians. "I don't leave anyone behind, not even someone who's not from my city. Not the human way."

"Stubborn little bastard." The sailor grinned, his teeth a slash of white against the golden beard. The statement was accurate as the man before him towered as high as the Desian Cardinal of this ranch. He easily caught the knife that Neil tossed to him. "Hear all you PalmaCosters are crazy as those eattin' spin fish quills."

"Never argued it master sailor," Neil grinned, "never doubted it."

"Name's Varn Yarvn," the man said conversationally as the wall leading back into the ranch hissed and began to lower.

"Neil Brightblade," the PalmaCosta guild-master's son chuckled.

"Jus' fiv' o' them," Varn cricked his knuckles. "Weirder then salted pickled eel pie."

"I imagine the others are busy." Neil thought of the Chosen and her friends. "Very very busy."

Xxx

The air seemed to ripple, then split and for one second there was a world within a world that all could see. For a heartbeat like some eerie halo around the blood stained desian they could glimpse a world of crimson and orange, of ever writhing flames that looked back with silted hot blue eyes. Then it twisted from window to spear that arched down from heaven and landed amongst them, setting the floor a flame. Snatching Genis up Lloyd ran, Kratos scrambled back and the fires herded them to the more open spaces. To where an ax could cut through the air unimpeded by wall and run red. Walking through the fires, he was unhurt by the fire, or if he was used it to fuel his rage and tone out his pain Magnius stalked after them.

The Chosen, where was Colette? In the mocking revelations and drama with Chocolat, the child he was to protect had been forgotten. She was in the back, in the hall, forgotten by them and by the desian. Smart girl, Kratos smiled ignoring the distracting power that Magnius was flexing at them like a bravo would their muscles; she was helping him forget by keeping silent and staying down. Suddenly she stood; wings fanned out before her and through the air arched three glittering feathers. Anger, pain, sadness, gave the _holy_ spell even more strength then it normally would have. Magnius staggered as three glittering feathers went into him and sank in all the way. He whirled and nearly lost his nose at the following up thrown churcin. Raine crouched in the far corner of the room, took her brother in her arms and began to work on the horrendous damage that the desian had brought on the child. She was out of the fighting save for the occasional healing spell their way at best. As for the elf child, if he _wasn't_ concussed from that hit Kratos would eat his sword un garnished.

"Wait…" Kratos whispered, "He has to step out of the fire first…"

Lloyd relaxed at his words, calmed, and held his nicked, battered sword at the ready

Definitely time to get Lloyd a new pair of swords, for someone unused to single sword style he had held his own. He had done good today. Pride mingled and mixed with affection, it had been a Hellish day, but it was almost over now.

"How you holding up?" He murmured as Magnius took another barrage of razor sharp feathers this time in the chest, the fires were fading, it was all waiting now.

"I'm holding." Lloyd answered in a quiet strained voice. "Breathing kinda hurts though."

"She's pissed." Kratos chuckled, admiring how the feathers left a nasty gash that cut through armor and desian cardinal equally. "Look at the way her feathers are flared out at the top."

"Wha?" Lloyd caught on after a moment. "I thought only birds did that… Well I mean she saw everyone she cares for get hurt, plus all the people in the cells, of course she's mad."

"Do you remember how I told you when we spared about _not_ locking your arm when you thrust?" The floor once sporting almost waist high fires was now only covered with embers, they could go anytime now. "I'm taking that back, just this once. The second your sword is in let go and pull back, then he's mine."

Once, before he'd seen all the death, done all this fighting he might have protested, insisted that Magnius was his to kill. Now he was just tired, he wanted to rest somewhere… quiet. That was strange for him to want quiet, but it's what he wanted. All he wanted. He lifted his sword, it seemed heavy, heavier then anything he'd ever lifted before in his life. If he had tied a hundred bricks to the hilt it couldn't be heavier and yet it was dreadfully light for all that weight.

Everything Kratos had said in Izoold now made a lot of sense. Unthinking, it was glory, sweetness, when unthinking the one truth would be the crimson flow from a fallen enemy. But he had forsaken that before it had become a real option, and now the weight of the steel blade was now his.

"_For vengeance?" Kratos asked him once when he'd cried on his shoulder after Tylor's death. "Will you kill them all for vengeance? Will it be revenge for you then that you use the blade?"_

"_N…no… I don't want to be like that…"_

"_For glory then?"_

The mercenary nodded and silent twin shadows of death, one red one black they ghosted across the floor until they blended with the large shadow of the desian who was wildly swatting aside the stinging arrows of light, the shards of holy truth, the shards offered in anger at the disruption of serenity, that came in the forms of flying feathers.

Steel turned in his hands, the flat of his blade fell away so that the edge. He shifted his grip so that he held the hilt in both hands, his arms, shoulders, tensed, locked…

"_No… I don't think it can be that either… I'd be a show off if I did it for that…"_

"_There are worse sins to be guilty of."_

"_Yeah I know… I don't know how or why only that I need to when someone's in trouble."_

"_Is not that a reason?" Kratos had asked. A hint of a smile appeared in his eyes and tone as he set his hand to stroking Lloyd's hair. "Is that not reason enough, do you need more?"_

_Lloyd had laughed, wiped his eyes and looked up at the man feeling just a little better now._

"_I guess I don't need anymore then that huh? Man I'm pretty dumb not seeing it when it's right there in front of me."_

"_It's a common mistake," Kratos had looked for one second pained, but that faded into strange proud look he was favoring him with a lot now. "Do not be too concerned about it." _

He took one step back, braced himself then with every ounce of strength thrust with his sword so far in that it went all the way up to the hilt. Magnius stiffened, then whirled ax leading. Kratos grabbed him, shoved him back and blocked the attack with his sword. Impossible as it was he held back the swing, shoved the attack aside.

"Colette, that's enough." Kratos said softly. "Go back to Raine and Genis now, help Lloyd go with you."

Magnius snarled, stepped back and touched the tip of the sword that was sticking out of his stomach. Every movement must have been agony that blade in his vitals. Still he fought on, Kratos blocked two more swings with the flat of his blade, then doing a lesser version of the mana shove attack Lloyd had pulled off earlier knocked the desian off of his feet. Croaking up blood, drooling his own blood, Magnius looked into those dead black eyes of the mercenary. A mortal man before him seemed a demon, he cringed back as he died, yet could not look away for his fear was too great.

"_Sadusa ust askan-iun yer cuo kharlan ill."_ Kratos swung his sword and to the man who's only truth was the crimson flow found his ultimate truth as Kratos' blade passed through his throat and sent a crimson arch to the heavens only to have it fall and mingle and mix with the other blood about the room. One man's truth, his crimson truth, looked no different from any others in the blood seeped room. The matter of truth settled, the following moment the head, the mind of the corrupted ranch fell, it rolled across the floor, and the heart of that ranch that had a crimson path now looked like a gouged out heart.

Kratos tapped the flat of his blade on Magnius' cheeks, then whipped his blade on the back of the man's shirt and sheathed his blade.

xxx

"That was… I don't know what it was… It almost seemed ceremonial." Raine was staring at Kratos while the man slept, his arms were bandaged, bruised, sore, from taking the brunt of Magnius' ax swings. Colette stood over the fire, watching a pasty green –not green pepper stew though it did look like dinner had!- substance begin to bubble, it would go over the bandages that would sheath Genis' scorched feet. Genis was blissfully awake but not thinking straight because of the pain medicines Raine had given him, it had been all Raine could do to keep the blunt trama and shaking from doing irreparable harm to her brother while he mended. She had burrowed herself in her brother's mind, used Kratos' tactic, and that had allowed her to fix all the small but potentially serious internal bleeding under her brother's scalp.

"It was… it was a corrupted version of the warrior's final prayer. It's supposed to free your soul to go to heaven, to let the glory, honor, behind the darkest of your deeds take you to heaven… but Kratos changed it. He denied Magnius the right to go to heaven. He barred it, the bars were glory, honor, and blood, the same things that make you go to heaven when you're a warrior."

"It seemed familiar; they gave it at the service didn't they?"

No need to clarify what service it was, there was only one that they'd all been too.

"Yes Professor, they do."

"What's strange is that a mercenary knows it." Neil added, sipping his medicinal tea that Riane had made him. "But then it might not be. Even the most lacking in piety cutthroat chants it when they die so that they don't go to Hell."

The Izoold man that had fought alongside the soon to be replacement Governor General (until vote amongst the guilds announcing the new Governor-General) had fallen asleep; he would be sharing watch with Lloyd later that night. All were asleep save Raine, Colette, and Neil, and Genis. Though Genis in his current state barely counted.

"He gives me the chills, no offense, both of them do." Neil finished his cup. "They're both good people I imagine, but there is something a little eerie about them.

"Kratos is a little eerie all around, but Lloyd's a good child." Raine took a sip of her own tea, that was little more then warmed water and a mixed in orange jell with a generous spoonful or three of sugar.

"Ms. Sage, a person who calmly rams a sword into another man's back, I don't care if it's half-elf, elf, or human, isn't a child. Not anymore they aren't." Neil shivered. "I know I hate the desian's but doing that goes beyond what I could do to another person."

Noishe growled, glared at them all and growled once more. He curled up besides Lloyd as if to say nothing was different in his mind. Riane smiled at her thoughts about Noishe acting intelligent. It did not reach her eyes that smile, it was a blank glassy smile of someone who needed desperately to sleep.

"I'm done for the night, Colette, Neil, pleasant watch to you both." She downed her drink in a gulp and went to her blankets, and if she wasn't as tired as she was she would have probably mulled over Niel's observations much longer.

As it was she had no choice, nature beat her stubbornness and she fell asleep the second her head touched the blankets.

Xxx

"We're going back to PalmaCosta, again?" Lloyd grumbled.

"We are to escort Neil back then we can continue with the journey from their, anyways you and I _both_ need new swords." Kratos pointed out and to the man's logic Lloyd folded.

"Back and forth back and forth… I feel like we're a child's top going around and around the same area over and over again." Lloyd whined.

"This will be the last time." Kratos promised.

"I hope so, I can't stand it anymore, I used to like it but now I just can't…"

Kratos nodded and Lloyd fell silent, both men went quieter then a graveyard as Neil rode up to them on his horse.

"Hoy mercenary," He bowed stiffly to Kratos from atop his horse, many a horse owner in the house of salvation were now filth rich as Neil had all but emptied his formidable wallet and gotten them all horses. He looked to Lloyd who looked grimmer then Kratos for once. "Young swordsman, you seem uncomfortable a-saddle."

"We don't have horses in Iseila." Lloyd admitted, wishing a little selfishly that he could have ridden Noishe, but Raine was not trusting her little brother to a stupid animal, she may not like Noishe all that much but she trusted him more then a horse any day. So Lloyd was getting his first saddle sores. "I didn't think it hurt this much…"

"You'll get used to it." Neil patted him on the shoulder with a mocking smile. "You seem quite comfortable a saddle, most mercenaries don't normally have the wherewithal to own a horse."

"I've done a few… high pay jobs in my life of the less honorable ilk." Kratos said smoothly, and both swordsmen watched as Neil grew uncomfortable at the mix of evasive answer and intense stare and excused himself with a few graceful words. The second he was out of hearing range Lloyd chuckled, it made his wounds and butt hurt but it had been funny.

"Are you gunna ever tell him the truth?" Lloyd and Kratos had been talking of the subject of the black clad man's ridding skills as a way to pass the time and Lloyd knew that one of his clients had bought a horse for them both to ride and that was the man's one and only encounter with the animals. It had happened years ago, had lasted about a month. Kratos was just acting skilled and almost in as much pain as the rest of them. They'd both been griping about it before Neil had come in with the idea of teasing Lloyd.

"No, I do not think so." Kratos hissed in pain, shifted, and muttered a few words at the animal that probably weren't polite. "I swear to Origin I'm going to have you in a stew or something!" Kratos hissed as the horse equally not liking Kratos decided to buck once then settle down and trot down the road with a mocking whicker. "The _second_ we get to PalmaCosta we are selling or I am butchering these…"

"I like it's tail, it's fluffy…" Colette chirped. "Can we keep it Professor?"

"Hmm…"

Raine honestly looked like she was considering it! Go figure the girls liked the things and they couldn't stand it! It wasn't fair!

"No!" Kratos barked. "Absolutely not, I swear I'll quit if you keep these things!" Kratos snapped.

"I be thinkin' someone's sadda sores 'r impedin' thar judgment eh?" The Izoold sailor chuckled.

Genis looked at them, eyes not as sharp as normal because Raine kept dosing him with medicines for his burns, unfortunately the medicines also loosened his tongue.

Genis smirked. "You two just don't like animals… it's a swordsman thing… I like them, especially if they drive Kratos nuts!"

Kratos' eye twitched and Raine gave him a long look.

"He's sick."

"Not that sick!" The mercenary growled.

"The medicine I gave him was very strong, he's bound to blather on and say what he doesn't mean."

Genis' smirk told them that he had meant it, meant every word. And that he was going to milk this and say quite a bit.

Gritting his teeth Kratos kept a rejoinder behind his teeth and rode on, hissing under his breath a few curses at the animals and at the elf.

Xxx

"Their a lot faster aren't they?" Colette chirped, helping Raine down from her saddle.

"Yes dear they are." Raine smiled thinly, rubbed her rear as she was in pain.

Kratos all but fell from his saddle, staggered away from the animal and it was a god thing the groom took it or it might have died, exspeically when it tried to step on the mercenary's toes.

"I hate horses." Kratos snarled.

"Help…" Lloyd whimpered from his perch, unable to even get down. Neil snickered, as did the elf sibs and Colette. "Damn it guys this isn't funny!"

The grooms finally had to pry him from his saddle and he cringed in pain every step.

"I feel like I've been Raine'd five or six times in a row…" He moaned, not daring to rub his butt and sooth the pain.

"Try to ditch my lessons by doubling up on Kratos' in one day and you might have that experience." Raine said coldly, still annoyed that even in a journey where they had to camp and travel together every second of the day Lloyd was _still_ trying to ditch.

"But he's giving me even more stuff to learn now!" Lloyd whined, a wasted effort as Raine was not listening to him. "It's not fair, he's drilling me in history, hunting, sword work, astronomy, and mythology and I still have to go to her classes…"

"You could drop a class or two I guess…" Kratos offered. Helping to support the limping young man as Raine was helping Genis walk.

"Both of your history classes would be nice to drop." Lloyd said hopefully.

Kratos' eyes turned to black slits and Lloyd gulped.

"Or not…"

"Or not indeed." Kratos growled.

He looked to the others, Neil was talking to Raine, Colette and the temporary governor general smiled, nodded, and Colette laughed at something he said.

"Wonderful, tomorrow come in any time to tend to that matter. As for your finances I'll personally cover everything you purchase in PalmaCosta, just come to the office with a list of what you need after you browse and it'll be sent to you. Until tomorrow then?" Neil rode off down the street, already the cries that the town's hero had returned sounding out.

"He's become as much a hero as Dorr was." Kratos smiled, it was a very unpleasant smile. "He's everything that they wanted Dorr to be in truth, that they made Dorr into, I wonder if they'll realize what the difference between the outcomes of their leadership means."

"Huh?" Lloyd was in waaay too much pain to follow Kratos right now.

"Never mind, just my cynical rambling." Kratos favored him with a concerned look. "Since the General is being so generous, let's take advantage of it."

"I could sleep for a week…" Lloyd mumbled, the days of fast paced travel, the trials of the ranch and helping tend to Genis even though he wasn't fully healed himself pounced on him like an enthused Noishe and sapped him of his energy.

"We all need our rest." Kratos agreed. He looked at them, maybe seeing how Raine was ultra pale from having to wear herself to a thread keeping them all in travel worthy condition while they fled the ranch and crossed the roads. Maybe he was looking at Genis seeing the bandaged up legs that hid sever burns and cuts. Maybe he was seeing an exhausted Colette who was playing as aide to Raine and healing from her injuries and suffering under nightmares from what she'd seen. Who knew, just looking at one of us you can tell how beat we are.

Kratos slung an arm around his shoulders and Lloyd leaned weakly into that offered strength, as Genis nestled into Raine's arms, and Colette clung to Noishe. They were all on their last legs, they all needed to rest, and those last few with strength knew what needed to be done. Matters were tended, Raine took Genis to a shared room. Noishe escorted Colette to hers and shared a room with the weary girl as he was an expert at soothing bad dreams with a well placed lick or bark.

Kratos helped Lloyd up the stairs, then on the first landing picked the swordsman up like he was the youngest of children and carried him the rest of the way to their room. Lloyd tended, packs thrown in the far corner of the room and the said room being locked, the mercenary lay down and nodded off the hilt of a knife resting in his hand.

Xxx

"Raine's acting weird around me." Lloyd muttered to himself over breakfast, so's Colette."

That explained Lloyd's glum spirits then. Kratos hadn't seen much of the others, save to check on the Chosen had not honestly cared all that much. Still they were close to Lloyd and as he wanted to become closer to the younger swordsman he would have to learn to care again. He considered all that had happened of late and came to what he hopped was the best answer.

"It could be," Kratos answered, as he snatched the syrup from Lloyd before the young man emptied the bottle and there was none left for him. "They have some thinking of there own to do. A lot happened, things changed, most graphic in there mind was that they saw you kill other living beings. It's not so much a change of yourself that this causes, but a change in how other perceive you."

"Huh, so until they think it out…"

"My company will be all you have for a span, pass the butter."

Lloyd did so; there was a change in Kratos. A stronger understanding, but that had been building and wasn't all of it. Kratos seemed, well, openly cheerful, as much as Kratos could be anyways. Lloyd had a faint hint of why that was and considered bringing it up. He decided to go for it.

"So are you happy that their all gone or is it the breakfast?"

Kratos twitched, then went back to smoothing the yellow butter over his pancake, that ever so slight motion told Lloyd just how hard he hit the mark.

"Kratos, you still can't be hating them!" Lloyd protested, hurt. "They're my family!"

"I know that." Kratos, whipped the knife clean over the edge of his plate. "And it is not hate. They would not survive that Lloyd. I just do not trust them; they are unskilled in combat and..."

Lloyd groaned, not this again, they'd been going over this on and off the whole trip and he wasn't going to quietly sit through it again.

"Not everyone's meant to fight." He snapped. "My Dad isn't, he's a craftsman."

"Really?" Kratos rose an eyebrow, looked him over a hint of a challenge in his gaze, but then if mentioning Raine got Kratos in a bad mood talking about Dirk was even worse. "He's not your blood father."

"He's still my Dad, he didn't teach me to be a swordsman, I didn't really want to be a swordsman, it just happened and I got lucky that I could fight OK? It doesn't seem right…" the rest of Lloyd's speech turned into a mumble as he tried to eat and talk at the same time.

"Lloyd, there is a glass of milk, take a drink and then talk when you're mouth is empty."

"Mumph!" Lloyd laughed, nearly choked, than took a long drink. "I swear you have a "Dad mode" hidden in you somewhere that jumps up randomly and makes you say Dad-like things."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Kratos took a bite, but was waiting for Lloyd to finish what he was saying earlier, he didn't have to say it he just radiated it.

"What I said was not everyone's supposed to fight, well I don't think, so it seems kinda unfair to think that someone who can't fight isn't any good."

"Where I came from everyone fought, we all had a trade but we all had to know how to fight." Kratos skewered another slice that he had cut. "Even the women."

"What!" Lloyd gapped at Kratos. "That's crazy, I mean it's cool too but…"

"The idea is alien to what you were brought up as, as is the idea that others can not fight alien to were I was born. We carry that our whole lives, and while I am more tolerant then I _was_ those who can't fight in my mind can't live. They can't be trusted to live in a dangerous situation, and if you can't give them that trust then any other bond is worthless."

"That's really… unfair." Lloyd pointed out. "Not everyone learns sword stuff."

"Yes, well surviving is not just sword skills." Kratos took a sip of milk, his eyes focused on something else far away. "The woman I fell in love with was not a skilled swordswoman, she was apt though with two very dangerous weapons that I had no defense against."

Lloyd looked to the mercenary his expression curious.

"She was very adept at hitting her foes over the head with the skillet, as I learned on one occasion when she mistook me for a desian." Lloyd chuckled as Kratos had hoped he would. "The second weapon was that she was capable of seeing me for what I am truly without flinching away. She accepted that I have done things that are vile, I've walked alongside some very dangerous people in my life, and she knew the full extent of that and accepted me despite and because of that."

"She loved you." Lloyd summed it all up easily enough.

"Yes," Kratos took a sip, and it might have been Lloyd's imagination but Kratos looked just a bit nervous. "She did, does, I hope." The mercenary spared a glance at the ceiling as if expecting some response. "Regardless she may have been uncomfortable with what I could do but she took me despite that." Kratos sighed. "What I'm trying to say is that it is my deepest hope that your friends will prove themselves worthy of the faith you put in them. That they can be your family for you, and that they never betray that trust you've put in them."

Lloyd didn't even hesitate. "They won't, I know them, and they won't."

"Once they prove that to me," Kratos said, pausing to wolf down his next bite. "It will only be then that I accept them, not a second before."

"You don't take things lightly do you?"

"Not when those I care for are involved, no I do not." There was a pause after his statement a look in Lloyd's expression that he couldn't read. "What is the matter Lloyd?"

"It means a ton to me that you care for me." Lloyd cracked a grin, "but does that mean you have to be such a syrup hog?"

Kratos threw the syrup pitcher at him and instead of catching it Lloyd ducked. It bounced off the table once, rolled and then toppled over the side. The mess they made caused the kitchen staff to fall on them like the vengeance of the god of thunder. Lloyd then showed the many skills he'd picked up from his older friend's primarily Genis. He pointed at Kratos and with wide puppy eyes that would have done Noishe proud pinned the whole thing on the mercenary. Kratos' glare promised death, his lips promised an extra hard sparing match, and he was stuck with the mop and bucket cleaning up the mess. Lloyd just speared the half of the man's remaining pancake and helped himself to another table's syrup pitcher.

"You are an immature brat sometimes, you know that?" Kratos snarled, watching half of his food was lost.

Lloyd only stuck out his tongue and the amount of syrup that coated that pancake made Kratos shudder. When Kratos caught Lloyd "accidentally" spilling a bit of syrup on the area he'd just cleaned the Iselain was firmly smacked with the wet end of the mop and shoed out of the common room. He received several sopping wet smacks as Kratos turned the boy's flight into impromptu lesson on how to retreat without lowering your guard. As it was, Lloyd came out of it sopping wet and the mercenary had the staff after his head on a pike. He spent a good hour scrubbing tables for that one, but it was worth it.

Well worth it.


	17. Washtubs?

To my readers,

(Gets on knees) Whoever wrote "row row row your boat"… Forgive me! Fluff chapter with little point save to get them to the geyser. You have been warned.

PS all reviews on bottom, sorry if I didn't get all the e-mails out for last chapter, been busy!

Kasan Soulblade

Hmmm washtubs…

Chapter 17

A week, a in which Genis limped around, Colette mostly slept, as did Lloyd. Raine ran from room to room a demon possessed, for the first three days. After that, when everyone seemed more or less healed decided to fall into a near hibernation state. It was on the second to last day that anyone was feeling remotely like themselves. Genis and Lloyd sat in the empty common room playing a game of skip hop laid out in front of them, cards fanned out in front of their faces a few trinkets scattered across the board with the pieces.

"OK I call and raise you… two metal beads."

Lloyd stared at his cards, cursed, and considered his remaining loot. He needed those red beads for his project but he needed the metal ones maybe if he tossed in four slips of purple fabric…

Colette skipped down the stairs. They knew it was her because when the footsteps came to the bottom of the stairs where there lay a throw rug there was a loud thump.

"You OK Colette!" Lloyd called, putting his cards down and getting up.

The second he was gone Genis moved to take a peak at Lloyd's cards, a green paw smashed down on his hand and he had the dubious pleasure of staring into the mouth of Lloyd's green dog.

"Alright alright…I won't cheat!" Genis hissed, trying to free his arm. He could hear Lloyd coming back and panicked. "I'll make beef stew for lunch and give you half my bowl!"

Noishe snarled.

"The whole bowl, just get off!"

Tail wagging Noishe let his arm go, winked at him then padded off to the abandoned kitchen.

"My turn right." Lloyd asked, sliding into his seat, Colette taking the chair besides him.

"Yep," Genis grinned weakly, rubbed his arm.

Lloyd tossed some purple fabric into his pile –bits of Kratos' ruined cape from the Fire temple-, scooted it forward.

"Call?"

"Call."

Genis skunked Lloyd as he had the last three games, chuckling he scooted the loot over.

"I don't know what makes it worse," Lloyd tossed his hand in. "The fact that you beat me three times now, the fact that your twelve and beat me three times now or the fact that every time I've ever played you you beat me."

"Oh hi Noshy!" Colette chirped, waving to the dog that used his tail to wag back.

Genis turned, in those jaws was the handle of a pot, the pot dangled loosely from the light grip those teeth exerted.

"So…" Genis sighed, "Who wants beef stew for lunch?"

"Bark!"

"Noshy does!" Colette chirped.

"Yeah…." Genis sighed, wondered how a dog was smart enough to effectively black mail him into cooking. "Looks like it huh?"

Xxxx

"Genis, Colette, and I, will be gone for the day." Raine informed him. "We are going to the university to conduct research."

"I take it Lloyd won't be coming?" Kratos shifted about on the bed, looked up from polishing his shield in his lap.

"He started screaming when Raine said we were going to the university." Genis snickered. "I think he was gunna jump out the window or something if Raine tried to drag him along.

"Don't exaggerate young man!" Raine smacked her brother and Kratos winced, that sound was a little hard on the ears, no matter how many times he heard it. "Regardless we felt we should tell you where we are headed so you don't worry about Colette."

"Thank you. With your brother and yourself going in the daylight hours in this city though I find little need for me to come along." Kratos said smoothly, looking down at his work. He was almost done.

"So you aren't coming Mr. Kratos?" Colette sighed.

"No, I am not."

"You'll be sparing with Lloyd then?"

"Perhaps," Kratos closed his eyes, went back to his work. He knew the lay of this shield as well as his own hands. Despite constantly –well it felt constantly- swapping his gear and knowing that that was going to happen several more times he always took some pains to get to know the tools of his trade.

Raine disappointment at Lloyd's continued choice to seek his company over that of his older friends seemed to fill the room. She probably pinned it to the fact that he was human. Little did she guess the pure repugnance the idea of a room stuffed with books brought to Lloyd, he knew, knew that if he told the young man that they were going to strip and run by wolves den with sausages tied around them the younger swordsman would have picked that over going to the library with no qualms.

Raine grumbled and sighed. She knew that there was no way that she was going to persuade Lloyd to go to them to the library, to the university, and what hopes she had harbored of making him try to spark the young man's intellectual curiosity were dashed.

"There are more ways to split a knotted hair then with an axe Ms. Sage." Kratos said, not bothering to look up from his task. "That is what the university is to him, an axe, and like most wise people he avoids it."

Raine was staring at him, he felt her gaze that was part accusation, part distrust.

"With some nudges, a few suggestions, and not dragging him by the hair to places of learning, he might actually develop some interest intellectually on his own. Some people must grow into their hunger for more intelligence, some are born into it, and others must pick it up."

Raine's stare was a little less hostile.

"There are other tools besides an axe." Kratos pulled his sword from its sheath, slid a hand over the steel that was almost a caress. "Other more elegant means to accomplish the ends we both desire."

There is was what she wanted and needed to hear. Her failure to teach Lloyd was a gnawing frustration with her, the fact that he was aiming at the same goal she was... One brick in the wall of mutual distrust and dislike between them both seemed to fall away.

"We'll be back by nightfall at the latest." Raine said, turned and was on her way out.

"Did… something just happen?" Genis muttered to Colette both pupils trailing after the elder elf.

"Kratos and Raine are just trying to be friends." Colette explained with a smile. "It's there way of saying "hi"."

Genis gave Colette a long hard look, the kind of look Raine would give Lloyd when Lloyd really messed up on a question. "I don't know Colette… that just seems a little far fetched."

"You'll see!" the blonde Chosen was not one to be phased by glaring inconsistencies in her intuition and the events going on around her. "They'll be friends in the end."

She didn't know it but Raine and Kratos had heard every word. Raine rolled her eyes, muttered something about the world ending first, Genis said something about pigs flying first, and Kratos muttered something about fish flying first.

xxx

"Sword practice!" Lloyd chirped, startled that Kratos had brought it up, normally Lloyd had to badger and whine but Kratos came to him interested in training. "Sure, hold on!"

Lloyd rolled out of the bed he'd been lounging in, not at all phased that he had fallen off the bed the young man searched under the bed and fished out his new swords. Kratos had bought him another set, they were lighter slender needle like blades the man had called the rapier. Lloyd had a few other names or them, 'lame' being one of them. He like the thicker broader blades but Kratos had stubbornly over ruled him. Lloyd favored the stabbing style, the in and out runs of darting about swiping and thrusting with his blade, so Kratos had catered to the Iselian's current style.

"There awful skinny." Lloyd grumbled, setting the sheaths to their proper hooks on his belt and winding the leather in either side of the sheathes so they were even more secure.

"They suit your current mode of fighting."

"Un huh…" Lloyd made a face, not believing, Kratos smiled indulgently, like a parent explaining something that should have been obvious to a kid. As they walked out of the inn he again went over his reasoning and reassurances.

"When you grow out of that type of fighting I'll get you a proper set of blades to match. You don't have the defense offered by a shield. You don't have the skill to use your blades as a shield. So these," Kratos tapped the blades with his own. "Are your weapons and these," Kratos tapped Lloyd's foot. "Are your shield."

"So you mean like if a Desian cut my boot in a fight the smell will…"

Kratos snorted.

"A dangerous weapon that. We'd all drop dead with them."

"Oh shut up!"

"I mean running, dodging, pick up those skills first. Dodging a hit saves energy where as blocking a hit saps your strength."

Remembering how blocking Kratos' sword strike numbed both his arms Lloyd wasn't going to argue that one.

They walked down the streets, would be leaving the city because well… there weren't any places that they could fight here. Sighing, looking at the buildings around him Lloyd felt a twing of pain in his chest. He could almost see a rope tail, hear the jingle of bells… the coble stones were weird, the city crammed with buildings was weird, he'd just be happy to get out of it for a few hours. Kratos seemed to share his sentiments, they walked as fast as they could, weaving through the crowds of people and ignoring those who were trying to attract them with yells of how wonderful their wares are.

A group of children, not much older then he was, darted by laughing. Lloyd pressed against the walls of a building, it wasn't a large group but the streets were thinner here, tight enough so that those a foot could get through but not say mounted troops. Defense, PalmaCosta was a tangle of defense tactic on defense. Winding roads to make the heart and head of the city less vulnerable, a limited number of paths large enough to warrant a large number of troops easy passage, similar thoughts like that drummed in his head even as he walked and thought of other things.

Oblivious to his thoughts, having none like them themselves, were those kids. They ran not thinking of anything but running and fun. A girl zipped on by a few boys chasing her. It was innocent, their game, just a silly pointless chase. He'd been on a number of those, with and without Tylor, since Iselia was such a big open place the chases were less in a straight line, more chaotic, but by their faces no less fun. He was tempted, tempted to cast aside his blades and just join them.

It wasn't his swords any more; they weren't just the heavy burdens that drove him nuts in Iselia and made him Colette-step more then Colette. They were so much a part of him now, almost a physical part that without them he felt lessened. Little wonder Kratos had scuffled at him when Lloyd had insisted and kept insisting he was a craftsman. He still was, but he was a swordsman too. And being a swordsman meant having strategy tap around in your head all the time, and thinking of stuff that no one else would really like to know about but that you _had_ to know about. He watched them run off, and sighed quietly.

"Regrets?"

Weird how Kratos seemed to just move into his head sometimes and read everything that was there. Bu then Lloyd was getting used to that. He was almost expecting it now.

"Yeah, a few."

"We all have them." Kratos sighed himself, a heart felt sigh. "We always will, that's one of the joys of having a conscious I suppose."

"I think, if we didn't have it, the world would be horrible." Lloyd said softly. "We'd all be like the Desian's or something even worse."

"I imagine so." Kratos gripped the hilt of his blade; Kratos' fingers strolled up and down the steel handle, an absent caress. "If it helps, think of it like this. We are not wolves as Magnius proclaimed; we are the guardians of those who can not be as we are. You said it yourself, not everyone is meant to be a warrior. Not everyone is a fighter, so we protect those not meant to hold a blade so that they never have to."

"Magnius, Genis called him a barbarian, so did Raine… But he wasn't was he? He was just a warrior who didn't protect wasn't he?"

"It's a danger, to become so hardened, to grow indifferent. You lock away the pain and the thinking and allow the blood to become the answer, the absolute answer, and like becomes easy satisfaction, satiation of the crimson lust is all that matter. That is what Magnis was, he was a man with an answer, one answer that never changed, and it has nothing to do with attack and defense."

"But thinking… You don't turn it off with just blood lust like he did too… you could turn it off by looking to someone else and just following them, like the Ch-" Lloyd mulled it over and a chilling thought came to him, one that he did not like, one that could not be spoken. He shoved it down hard, ashamed for even thinking of it, of entertaining it. Ashamed for almost speaking it.

Kratos stared at him and Lloyd bowed his head, stared at the ground while he walked, better that then those eyes that would coax him to say it. He edged around turning from the church all the way. He normally hovered between Kratos' faith and Colette's, he knew Colette's even if he didn't follow it, he did not know Kratos'. To break away, to say that it was wrong was to say the journey, that everything Colette believed, was wrong. He wouldn't do that to her, couldn't, so he kept quiet.

"Sometimes, the line between protect and attack are blurred." Kratos said at last. "So many lines are blurred, so many boundaries can be broken and shift, are… fluid despite seeming solid. If there is one tried truth it is that what we know is not absolute."

"Flu-id? Ab-soul-oot?"

Sighing in annoyance Kratos seemed to spear him with this disappointed look that made Lloyd cringe.

"Excuse me for not being as smart as you are!" Lloyd flared in frustration. "It's not like I had a gazillion years to get as smart as you are!"

"I'm not that old." Kratos growled, sounding insulted. "Not yet anyways."

"You're working on it though!" Lloyd teased, opportunity calling too loud for him to ignore, he made a few other old jokes and watched as Kratos' temper slowly disappeared under the attack. Snarling a few threats, cricking his knuckles, the mercenary advanced upon the young swordsmen, death promised in his eyes.

Well Lloyd got his chase in, though having a ticked Kratos charge after him wasn't exactly his idea of fun.

xxx

"Sword, staff, shield, call!"

"Sword!" Colette and Lloyd chirped

"Shield!" Genis laughed. "Sheild blocks sword, I win, I'm out!"

Kratos looked up from sharpening his sword, it was the first day back on the road and everyone was as healed as could be expected. Breakfast was a fond memory to all, the dishes were done, and they were being a little lazy and getting a late start because Raine insisted on putting more information in her book. They'd given her a half hour to work and the children had started this strange game. Raine had been done for a while, was just going through and making a tally of some kind, numbering the entries and making a list. Sections with no drawings were left with a strange mark and the mercenary was not bored –or stupid- enough to invoke the woman's "ruin mode" by asking a question about her work.

"What are they doing?" Kratos muttered to Noishe, scratching the creature between it's ears.

"Deciding who shares last watch." The silver haired elf answered without even slowing her pen's travel across the page.

"So then…" Kratos watched the two children, long blonde hairs mixed with the spiky mane that Lloyd sported. "Colette and Lloyd will then share a watch?"

"No," Raine smiled into her book. "They are deciding who shares watch with you."

Kratos frowned, "Lloyd normally shares watch with me."

"Yes well he wanted to change it tonight because, and I quote; 'My head hurts from last nights talk and my ears need a break from being Kratos-ed off'."

"Why doesn't he just tell me to be quiet then, or tell me these things?" The mercenary huffed, the sound made Raine look up and chuckle.

"He respects you too much I imagine. I had the same issue with him when he was younger, asked him why he kept coming to class if he was going to sleep, he said he wanted to try to stay awake because he liked me. It's a sweet kind of Lloyd gesture that he's famous for back in Iselia."

Kratos flushed, and muttered. "I don't see you playing along."

"That's because the children wont allow me, all of them –not barring Colette- think that if they leave us alone together we will kill each other. Unfortunately they are astute in that observation."

"Indeed." Kratos favored the woman a savage glare. Her arrogance was again grating on his temper, he dragged the whet stone over his blade and she grimaced at the noise.

"Call!"

"Staff!"

"Pries off shield…" Lloyd sighed. "Alright, same old same old…"

"Same really old." Genis chuckled grinning at Kratos because the man seemed absorbed in tending to his gear.

Kratos drew a throwing dagger, tossed it so that it buried itself into the ground right by Genis' feet. The elf squeaked, hopped back and the mercenary looked up innocently.

"I apologize, I thought I saw a bug."

Raine drew her staff and struck the mercenary with it a firm smack that rattled is wits a little.

"So sorry, I thought I saw a bug too."

Kratos favored her with a death glare and she went back to her writing

"Welcome to officially being an Iselian, Kratos." Lloyd chuckled,

Colette chirped. "Raine taps everyone with her staff once that she really likes them!"

Raine looked up and Lloyd gulped, he was skirting on the edge of a Raine-ing and he knew it.

"Heh, hey umm you up to sparring… Since Raine's busy and all…" Lloyd asked the mercenary, hoping Raine wouldn't…

"You need to study for tomorrow's quiz." Raine growled, burying her nose in her notes.

"But Raine tomorrow's the quiz for the Iselian unit, I know Iselia! I could sleep through the quiz and still get it right!"

"Fine, you need to help Kratos study for the quiz."

"Excuse me?" Kratos sputtered. "We have gone through this before I m no student of…"

The staff lifted in warning and Kratos fell silent.

"You have been attending my lectures your answers to the questions will allow me to tell if I'm doing my job as a teacher. Genis is such an excellent student and Lloyd is… sub-par in that department, Colette is about average. But all of them know the topic inside and out so I expect them all to pass. For one who knows nothing of it I am presented with the perfect opportunity to gauge my lecturing skills."

Kratos sighed, if he gave in it would spare him and Lloyd a lot of Hell, that was to be certain.

"He can quiz me then I will spar with him."

Raine made a face, seemed to want them to skip the sparing, but them peace minded as she was she could not understand those who took pleasure in such contests.

"Fine," Raine sighed, she knew when she was ahead. "Well go ahead Lloyd."

"Ummm…" Lloyd sat on the road to think of a few questions and Kratos mentally sighed, this was going to be a slow morning. "OK Iselia was founded when?"

"Fifty nine years ago." Kratos rolled his eyes.

"Wrong!" Genis pounced on the mercenaries answer with sadistic glee. "It was sixty years ago."

"It was off by one year!" Kratos growled.

"Wrong's wrong." Lloyd chuckled. "trust me, it almost cut it with Raine I'd be a seventy percent right student at least."

"Instead of a twe-"

There was the clap of a book closing. "Genis, have you been reading my grade book again?"

"N…no.. epp! Genis dropped his packs and made a run for it, Raine hot on his tail.

"Where have I seen this before?" Kratos murmured, lips curling in dark humor.

"Run Genis run!" Colette cheered.

Lloyd snickered, Raine was gaining on Genis, and in a few moments of the chase it would be up, and then would come the hand of doom.

"He doesn't have a prayer." Lloyd chuckled. "She jumped over a hedge of bushes, cut through a water filled wash, and scrambled up a tree after me one time."

"Wasn't that during the dwarven culture unit?" Colette asked.

Lloyd nodded. "She thought my presentation wasn't long enough, I wanted to go home, so tried to make a break for it. You know I think she was in "Ruin Mode" cuz her eyes were all weird and glittery."

Kratos made a strangled noise in his throat. Took a deep breath and when he was in control of himself asked."

"What did your father have to say about that?"

"Nothing." Lloyd watched as Genis tried to squirm free of his sister's grip, Raine had caught him in a tackle and had him by the seat of his pants.

"Nothing?"

"Raine already clonked Dad on the head and he was out cold when she finally caught me."

Kratos looked at the Iseilan swordsman strangely, it was that intent glare that read through everything.

"Please… tell me you are joking…"

"Nope," Lloyd shrugged. "Noshy er Noishe snuck behind Raine, snatched Dad's tunic in his jaws, I jumped down the tree and we barely got out of there alive."

"The professor was just curious!" Colette protested.

"Colette…" Lloyd said slowly. "Curious is asking a few questions, we'd both been there three hours already and it was getting dark outside."

Colette frowned at that, or maybe it was the spectacle of Genis being smacked firmly on the rump, Raine's cries of "How many times have I told you to not go through my stuff!" rolled across the grassy valley they traveled and reached their ears.

"She just wanted to learn."

"Let me tell you something, I feel sorry for those poor ruins we're gunna go to. I feel sorry for the people in charge at the book places we go to. And I'd feel really really sorry for anyone who like…. Lived way back when, when all of this stuff old past stuff was happening."

"Librarians run a library, not a 'book place'." Kratos corrected absently. He was watching the show with a grimace on his face. "And I think any sane person who lived in ancient times should kill themselves before falling in her clutches."

Colette giggled. "I think it'd be fun, Raine would be really happy if we found an ancient person who lived in… say the Kharlan war! That would make her really happy!"

"I believe now," Kratos watched as Raine stormed back, Genis limping behind her. "Would be a golden opportunity to slip off. Let me do the talking…"

"All yours." Lloyd grinned.

"Ms. Sage, your pupil is done lecturing me so we'll be off…" Kratos snatched Lloyd's arm, Raine's eyes flicked onto him as she read through his strained tone and saw the lie. "Damnit, it's not working, run…"

"Kratos, Lloyd, get back here!" Raine shrilled after them. "Neither of you are done studying!"

Lloyd spared a glance over his shoulder, paled.

"She's following us, she has her staff!"

"Keep running!" Kratos growled.

And they did until the sound enraged screams faded farther and farther away.

Xxx

"I can't believe this, we don't have swordsmen with us, we have children!" Raine flared, pacing back and forth. Genis lay on his blankets in pain from his punishment and the two _swordsmen_ were hiding somewhere out in the wilds playing and avoiding there work. Oh they claimed it was swords work, but she'd seen Lloyd's cheerfulness after and that only meant that he was playing. "I'd give just about anything…"

"Whine?"

Raine turned, on silent paws he had padded up to her, a chain caught between his teeth, a whistle dangling at the end of that chain. She stared at Noishe, at the whistle, and considered it. It was her birthday gift, it was hers to use it as she wished, and she had twenty uses. She took the whistle from the dog, patted him on the head and cleaned it off then sound off two notes.

"Two fetches, two uses." Raine said to the dog who nodded as if he understood. "Bring Kratos and Lloyd back here, I need to have a word with them."

The tongue lolled out in an evil canine grin, then Noishe slinked down into the grass, his green fur making him blend in to the wilds of the off road path that they were yet again taking as if offered the faster route to the water wall pass.

Xxx

Kratos lifted his blade and Lloyd spun his blades knowing that lecture would turn into lesson in a few moments.

"When dealing with projectile weapons…" Kratos began.

"Bark!"

A green projectile, a large green projectile, smashed into Kratos and the mercenary was under three hundred and some pounds of dog. Growling Noishe grabbed Kratos' mess of belts, lifted him up and then proceeded to drag him back towards the camp they'd let behind.

"What in Origin's name are you doing!" Kratos flared, trying to squirm free.

"Grrr!" Noishe proceeded to carry Kratos back, a glimmer in the canine eyes told Lloyd that he was next.

"She used the whistle!" Lloyd said, terror in his voice.

Noishe's tail wag and wink did nothing to dispel that terror.

Xxx

Kratos was yelled at, lectured, scolded for being a bad influence. Genis laughed through the whole thing. He could tell Kratos was furious from being fetched and that he was mad and didn't agree with Raine. He stubbornly backed his and Lloyd actions stating that she had been stalling and breaking up their sparing matches every opportunity she got. Raine didn't even listen to him, just held the whistle almost like a weapon and said "you have ten times to learn the lesson Mr. Aurion" and that was that.

They waited as Noishe went out again, he was gone an awful long time, almost an hour. He came back, chasing Lloyd. The younger swordsman was holding his pants, the belts were in Noishe's mouth, that mouth was wide open and the teeth snapped a few inches away from Lloyd's behind. Seeing they were back Noishe sat down, Lloyd walked up to his dog and snatched the belts from Noishe's mouth then looked around. Genis was laughing so hard he was crying, Colette was giggling, even Kratos cracked a smile at the boy's discomfort. Raine waited until Lloyd was… better dressed, then descended on him eyes blazing. Rather the staff descended, or tried.

Lloyd dodged the first few swings, shocking all his old friends that he dared to dodge. The impromptu sparing match lasted all of five minuets, Lloyd pulled a Colette step and it was over at that point.

"I've seen less brutality in insane tyrants then in that one." Kratos grumbled, adverting his eyes as Raine proceeded to spank Lloyd.

"A what?" Colette chirped.

Raising an eyebrow Kratos stared into those far too innocent eyes.

"Never mind Chosen," Kratos winced when Lloyd called for help. "Never mind."

Sore rears aside the boys walked and kept pace with the adults. Colette rode upon Noishe with the delight of a little girl being able to ride a pony, she scratched his ears and poured baby talk into his ears. Noishe sighed content, as he was getting a shoulder and head massage. Raine was finishing her revenge as she drilled both swordsmen ruthlessly on the material for the upcoming test by holding a long string of lectures.

"I'm never ditching again…" Lloyd moaned, rubbing his rear.

"I'm never reading Raine's note book or diary ever again…" Genis moaned rubbing his rear.

"My butt hurts more the yours." Genis groaned.

"Does not…" Lloyd flinched.

"Does too…"

It didn't help that Raine was basically telling them over and over that they were getting their just deserts. After all they were her pupils, and she was famous for having high attendance in her classes. Little wonder that, Kratos growled to himself, rubbing his throbbing temples. He had gotten off lightly, the mock smack for teasing Genis had been it for him physically, and he dared not leave the Chosen to get some reprieve from the endless chatter of Raine. Never had the idea of leaving a client ever been so tempting.

When lunch came so too did the test. Lloyd scooted up to Genis, eyes roaming the elf's paper. Raine smacked him for that and ordered him to sit by Colette. When Colette leaned against him Raine split them apart and set him by Kratos. Kratos' glare was enough to persuade Lloyd to look at his own paper, and keep his eyes there.

"What kind of questions are these?" Kratos snarled, Lloyd gathered his courage and saw that he actually had more of the test done then the mercenary.

"Oh Raine put personal questions in your test too." Lloyd smiled. "She mixes old history with modern but since we're all from Iselia the modern history tends to have stuff about us in it. Number six is three years ago, the mayor put that law in after I kicked Ivan's ass, he banned outsiders from using steel weapons in town to keep me from..."

"Lloyd Irving!"

"Umm… so that's how you spell it, thanks Kratos!" Lloyd said a bit too loudly, then hunched over his paper.

"About number twelve." Kratos hissed to Lloyd when the Professor's back was turned.

"I got Raine'd today, you think I wanna go for two times" Lloyd growled. "Guess or something!"

Kratos scowled, was going to push it but Raine's eyes flicked over him. The elf was in high form today, he decided not to push his luck and stared at the question.

_12) In (this order Lloyd don't get it backwards this time!) what year, month, day, and place was craftsman Lloyd Irving born?_

Sighing Kratos filled it out, he stared at the next question, a grimace on his face.

_13) In what year, month, day and place did the mercenary (an evil egocentric jerk!) Kratos Aurion come to Iselia._

Kratos looked at the childish handwriting that preceded his name and Genis flashed him an evil grin, all the other questions on the quizzes were laced with similar comments questioning the testers intelligence. The second Raine saw those the elf child would again be Raine-d upon there was little doubt of that.

Colette giggled, muttered something about how do you spell bunnies, and wrote something on her paper.

The last question made him laugh out loud. Raine looked up frowned, and looked to Genis a hint of suspicious in her eyes. Lloyd got to it and began to laugh too and Colette joined in. Scrawled in the last few lines of the parchment was a section of Raine's diary talking about how she wondered if someone was getting into her notes. On Kratos' copy, underneath the original text was a cutting from the elf woman's diary, an extra attachment. He scanned it, and went crimson as it detailed the… attractive aspects of his physical appearance to the female eye. After it was a rant about how annoying, arrogant, and grating he was. The line 'possessing the social graces of a boar but the physic of a man from the scriptures' was a rather tidy way to sum up the rant.

Lloyd whipped his eyes, wrote something underneath a different slip of paper that had been pinned to his paper, as did Colette. Kratos lifted the papers up, stared at the instructions that read.

_Take off the diary entry, scratch a thick line through this, then write what the square root of 81 is. Leave the last paragraph as it is…_

_This test has been altered by Genis L. Sage, proud test changer to make all our lives a little less boring._

Undernieth that the handwriting changed from a scrawl to a mess of tangled lines that seemed to rush off the paper.

_Comments on questions seven, twenty nine, and all the closing 'special notes' have been gathered on threat of life and limb by Lloyd Irving._

In small bubbly writing that bobbed up and down like a skip personified came the third to last line.

_I did the cute bunny on number thirty:) C. Brunel_

There was a line and a quick note in Genis' handwriting.

_Comments, suggestions, that's what the back's for! GS_

_Post Script,_

_Emergency 'club' meeting, must attend if capable of moving. Genis is excused but if the rest of you guys can make it try, this is code orange leaf!_

Kratos paled, that was an emergency by all means, because orange leaf…

Meant that Raine had bought a cook book and was planning to surprise them by making a recipe out of it.

Xxx

Genis moaned he was sore all over; he wasn't sitting, wasn't standing, and in a pathetic show of pain limped to Kratos.

"Heal… me… please…"

Raine was taking notes, notes on monsters or recipes? A chilling thought that. Kratos looked down at the whimpering child, patted the boy's head in sympathy. Genis cringed as his head was touched. As a blue light enfolded the boy's throbbing scalp and eased the pain Genis sighed in relief. He passed out right there at Kratos' feet he was so exhausted. They'd hiked after the test, had not stopped until dark had fallen. Raine had started a fire, her pupils were nursing headaches as they had _all_ been firmly smacked then pushed to their physical limit. Then to add insult to injury she cooked for them. They were unable to plan any graceful retreat, all of them -except for Kratos- were on their last legs and they had shoveled down the food. Several walks had been taken; Noishe had taken one look at the orange and green soup and had ran off into the night before anyone could try to offer him a bowl.

Kratos dumped the bulk of his food behind a rock. Lloyd had tried, gotten caught and had been given a second serving and he had to eat every bite as Raine hovered over him like some demented elf Goddess of cruelty.

Lloyd had curled up on his blankets, signaled that he wasn't attending the meeting and passed out. So much for the boy sharing first watch with him. Kratos would keep his eyes open for the next set of signals, there would be a meeting, orange leaf was a code of nightmare inspiring severity. Eventually Raine began to nod off, she stuffed her notes into her nap sack and using that as a pillow fell asleep. It was only him and Colette.

"Ouch… my feet hurt…" She had her boots off and was rubbing the hurt bit of her anatomy. She had, Kratos noted, very small feet. "Today was a lot of walking wasn't it Mr. Kratos."

"Yes Chosen," He sighed. "It was. You should go to sleep child, tomorrow will be a long day."

"Mmm…" Colette considered it. "How can it be, I mean today was twenty four hours and tomorrow's twenty four hours so how can tomorrow be longer then today?"

Kratos cracked a slight smile at her logic. "It will seem long Chosen." The mercenary let his gaze slide over his traveling companions. "Some days seem longer then others."

"What'd you get on the test?"

Kratos rose an eyebrow, he was not one of her school friends, he should establish that fact right now. He held to his silence while she waited, favoring him with this patient hopeful look that made him think of another woman he escorted long ago. Still he refused to fold, held onto his silence and she began to think it over.

_Good, perhaps she thinks I'm insulted_, if she thought that then she would likely never bring up these tests again…

"Oh I didn't tell you what I got first.. sorry I forgot. I have a eighty nine percent!"

Kratos sighed, tossed another log on the fire and waited again for her to give up on talking with him.

"Now you're supposed to tell me what you got!" Colette chirped.

"I'd rather not discuss it Chosen." He said when the silence became too much for him to bare.

"Oh… I guess Genis is right, you must of failed."

"I did not…" Kratos snarled, then took a deep breath. "The damn test was rigged."

"What'd you get?"

"That is unimportant."

"Alright, I'm sorry." Colette looked chagrined, she must of realized that he did not want to talk.

"You should sleep.." He began again, his skin crawled when she looked at him. He hated it when someone would look at him, especially a innocent. As if what he was might rub off on them, taint them with what he was. That he did not want. "It will…"

"Water." Colette said calmly.

"Pardon?" Kratos raised an eyebrow.

"That's what's bothering the professor, she hated the pond in Iselia, and she didn't like the ocean at PalmaCosta. I bet that's what's making her grouchy."

Kratos considered it, shrugged, he hardly cared why the woman was as she was.

"I bet when we come back from the geyser she'll be alright again!" Colette chirped.

Kratos let that information sink in, considered it for a bit instead of ignoring it because of the source. If so Raine would be more hostile and violent until they could put the geyser safely behind them. That could take a while, quite a while…

And until it was over they'd all suffer, she wouldn't dare lash out at him but the children _all_ of the children were fair game. She wouldn't hurt them, a few more smacks then normal, but couple that with travel and the strain that long term travel puts on a person. Pain became more potent on the road, weakness harder to shake with the thinnest of comforts available. That could be dangerous.

He'd been passive, sitting back and letting the dynamics between the three children and adult play out with little intervention. He would have to change that. Tapping the hilt of his blade he mulled over it, considered, and then made his mind up about a few things. He dared not be passive, he'd have to step in and stop it. Not with words, more then just words since they didn't seem to work, but actions.

Granted it was little more then what he wanted to do initially, but he hadn't dared, had been staving off forming any attachments, had been passive to ensure an easy span of gri- separation pains when they died.

"You look all funny when you think Mr. Kratos." Colette said with a yawn at the end of her sentence. "You look a little Lloyd-ish."

"How so?" He decided to humor her this once, and respond as her friend would.

"Your eyes go all small, you half close them and you tap your sword. Lloyd does that a lot lately."

"He does?" Kratos cocked his head to the side.

"M hm." She yawned again. "He's been acting a little funny lately, been thinking a lot." She giggled. "He's been looking at you funny too, when you walk. Genis says he's trying to pick lessons out of the back of your head, or he just stares at your cape when Raine talks a lot, but I don't think so."

Kratos laced his hands together on one knee, stared at her, utterly still, a stature of onyx and marble. Any other would have been worried, disturbed under the unflinching scrutiny. Colette though was immune to fear, as far as he could tell.

"Why do you think that Chosen?"

"Because he really likes you." Colette smiled. "See I told you he'd really really like you!"

He recalled the iselian temple and nodded.

"I know he wants to be as smart as you so he can protect everyone, he's always wanted to do that." Colette frowned in concentration. "It might be more though, but I don't know. You know, it's funny about Lloyd…" Colette smiled again. "He says what he's thinking a lot, so many people get mad at him for that, but sometimes… I don't know if he says everything he thinks after all. Isn't that silly?"

"No… a great many people are like that, there are some thoughts that can not be voiced. They are either not understood by those who think them, can cause great anger if spoken… or are simply too horrible to be spoken."

"I can't imagine anything being too horrible to be spoken, after all if you make it spoken you can fix I or make it go away right?" Colette smiled. "They say that those who speak of untruths and evil may at last fix them, well that's what the Book says."

"Yes, so says the book." Kratos sighed, stared into the fire.

"Mr. Kratos, I'm sorry did I make you sad?"

"No, it's not your fault, I guess I'm just naturally… sad." He winced that the word choice but was leery of breaking away from it because how much she understood beyond her spoken vocabulary he didn't know.

And he really didn't want to find out.

"I'm sorry." Colette looked if at all more distressed. "you know praying makes me happy I bet…"

He scowled at her and she paled, perhaps she was scared of some things after all.

"Sorry, I forgot, you don't worship Martel do you?"

"Go to bed Chosen." He said in an icy voice.

She was silent a long time and he closed his eyes, listened to the night about him.

"Why don't you?"

"Why do you?" He countered, putting the exact note of accusation that was in her voice.

She had the grace to fall silent again.

"Because… what she wants, a world of light, where everything is good, it seems like a wonderful thing. And to be able to give that to everyone to be in the possistion to do that… Where it's just one person who takes all the bad things and everyone else is happy. That seems…"

He opened his eyes, stared at her and she met his gaze, she fell silent.

"It's a crime." He whispered. "To me it's a crime, no man's justice is absolute why should some Goddess' be the same." Kratos recalled Lloyd's cries of pain when the boy had blocked the sword strike meant for Dorr, and winced at the memory. "There is dark, there is light, we walk in both, we are part of both. That and everything in between."

Colette drew the path mortal destiny meeting devine intervention to shield her, protect. He watched the motion, bored by it, having seen it a hundred thousand times in his life.

"Chosen."

She looked up at him, he lifted a hand brought it down.

"Devine intervention."

From the bottom of his sweep he brought it up half way, left to right to left his hand went.

"The mortal road."

He went up again, clutched at the symbol he drew in the air and put it over his heart, he spread his fingers and let her see it.

"I hold nothing more then words, nothing more then a gesture, what good a shield is that?"

She opened her mouth to protest, to explain, he met her gaze and she lost her words.

"Go to sleep child, you need your slumber."

"If you listen to those words, consider them.." Colette whispered. "Consider all the Goddess words of peace and love…"

"If you will not sleep I shall, can you stand a watch alone?"

Colette looked to him, pain, it pained her to no be able to explain. She shook her head.

"I'm sorry you don't believe." She stood, went to her blankets.

"As I am for you." Kratos looked to the fire, knew that it looked back. "Intervention only goes so far child, it is one point on a line. Where is then the rest of the world?"

Colette had no answer for him, merely went to bed, her lack of answer seemed answer enough.

Xxx

They reached the docks the ninth day o travel. Kratos had saved his butt so many times –literally- that Lloyd was floored. Raine had punished him for getting something wrong, Kratos had stepped in firmly and broke them apart. He seemed to be hunting Raine, catching the more frequent flashes of anger and deflecting them, or taking the brunt of them himself.

Saying 'thanks' over and over seemed so lame, so he stopped. Kratos understood he was great full, kept it up. At night though, on his lone watches, he had begun to work on something that might say is thanks for him. Humming he whittled while he sat on the dock, watched the shavings o his work drift away. Kratos was taking the brunt of Genis' mistake now of putting the dark clothes with the lights while they were being washed. Raine dared not hit him, Kratos had tolerated the light smack on the road the first day since it'd been more of a joke then anything, but if Raine honestly tried to scold him like that. She hadn't forgotten Triet and neither had Lloyd.

Noishe padded up to him, the figurine was almost done, Noishe sniffed it, him, then sneezed.

"Sop being such a baby Noshy." He grinned, patted his dog's head. "You think he'll like it?"

"Bark!" Noishe bobbed his green head and Lloyd smiled.

"I hope so, well this is the last of it, at least now…"

"Hey Lloyd, what'cha'doing!" Colette pounce hugged him and he laughed, set aside the carving to return the hug.

"Carving a little trinket." He smiled as he was released and Noishe was given a playful scritch.

"Oh, it looks like a knight!" She picked up the armored swordsman, the fire patterned flowing armor that hung over it's frame, a sword pointing to the earth rested in clasped hands, and it looked sternly ahead. "It's really nice Lloyd!"

"Thanks." She hadn't noticed, but the knight was wearing a sparrow tail styled cloak. There was a little of everyone in the figurine set he made. From the wolf crests on the foot soldiers shields, to the twin swords strapped to the archer's sides. The priest's looked a lot like Raine, and the magi troops sported kendamas. A little of everyone I you knew where to look.

"So are we going tonight?" Lloyd asked, wanting to get there already and see the geyser. "Or are the ships out or something?"

"Candy says we can't go today because the boats sprung a leak."

"Oh.." Lloyd smiled. "Oh well, tomorrows a good day as any."

Poor Kratos, he was going to be trapped in a house of salvation with Candy. Poor poor Kratos, the woman was already hinting that they'd get discounts if Kratos would just visit her for dinner.

Well maybe Lloyd could make the mercenary forget about the crazy girl for a little while.

Smiling he picked up the knight he'd just finished, rolled it over on his hands.

It would be worth a shot.

Xxx

The others were asleep, after bending over a map and talking for a while Raine, Genis, and Colette went to bed. Noishe was cuddling with Colette, letting her lay against his back so long as she tucked them both in with the blanket. It was a strange sight indeed, while Noishe liked Colette Lloyd didn't think it was the cuddle kind of like. Noishe normally only cuddled with him when he needed/wanted it. How Colette was sleeping wit the dog snoring up a storm was beyond Lloyd, even the swordsman who loved his dog like no one else always wore ear plugs when he slept curled up with Noishe.

Kratos looked up from his book he was reading, he was borrowing one of Genis, the smaller elf's thanks for saving him earlier no doubt.

"You've been watching me like a hawk." Kratos said, setting the book on his lap. "Is there something so fascinating with my face?"

"Ah… no." Lloyd felt himself going red. "I just… here." He pulled out the box from his packs and put it on the table that the mercenary was sitting by.

Kratos stared at the box, and at him for a long long time.

"Lloyd, what is this?"

"Something." Lloyd felt himself going hot, damn it this was embarrassing. The way Kratos was acting was like he'd never gotten a present before. "Just… open it."

Kratos shrugged, pulled open the latch and stared at the contents of the box for a long moment. He did not breath, his eyes went wide and reached out and pulled out one of the aggressive dark knights. The figurine wielded a double edged sword, was frozen in mid salute, a shield strapped to it's arm. Trembling Kratos stroked the knight set it aside pulled out another piece, one of the magi. He traced out the kendama sheath that Lloyd spent forever and a day struggling with, stared at the two pieces as if eh couldn't quite believe it.

"Your Trava set was getting a little run down looking, no offense, and well…" Lloyd shrugged. "I'm not done yet, I only have the primary opening pieces done and none of the higher classes but I figured it's a long trip it'll give me something to do, you know?"

Kratos looked up from the table, his eyes… they glittered as if with tears? No way, Kratos never would cry, he was too strong for that.

"I don't know what to say…" The man whispered, his voice thick with emotion.

"How about a game?" Lloyd offered weakly.

Kratos stared at him, as if not believing that he was seeing him. As if he was certain he was still asleep. He took a deep breath, nodded.

"A game… sounds nice…"

"I get Noishe's side!" Lloyd smirked, pointing to the armored people that had the symbol of the wolf.

"Then, I will take the Aeros side." Kratos picked out the people with the hawks on their shields and standards.

"Aeros?" Lloyd set up his pieces.

"It's an ancient term for a bird, a hunting bird that was in lore most have forgotten a great guilder and protector of Mithos and his companions.

"Really?" Lloyd brightened, "You know stories about the Kharlan war? Not like history but I mean _real_ stories…"

"I know a few." Kratos spared him a humored glance. "My people take note of the lore not the dates of the time. Perhaps, as we play I can relate a few…"

"Would you, that'd be great! But… well you might wanna keep it down cuz of Raine."

"Only if you do the same."

Lloyd chuckled, took the hit bravely enough

"Yeah I'll keep my trap shut."

Kratos smiled warmly, a honest to Gods warm smile that ignited in his eyes.

"They say… that the true adventures of Mithos and his companions were not on some great battle field, but began on the banks of a river. There, long ago they met a human, he was alien and savage, brutal but honorable, a mess of contradiction, and it was shortly after meeting this man who was lost in his own intricate web of lies and counter lies born of hatred and frustration… that the true path, the true cause of the wars became known to them." Kratos caressed one of the knights with a finger, drew out the patterns and ridges of the armor. "With this man of contradiction, a maiden of purity, a man of rightousness and honor, the… Hero stumbled upon a monster who could wear the guise of mortal man."

Kratos set the knight forward, set a legion of them forward. Lloyd freed up some of his archers, had them 'hide' in the wooded forest.

"He was the deceiver, the tormentor, and he came to them in the guise of purity and betrayal…"

Kratos began to fan out his soldiers, was going to search and destroy the forest while doing so. Cursing Lloyd pulled out a magi to slow them down.

"That's crazy, people being more then one thing at once..."

"Is it, aren't we all?"

Lloyd considered it, nodded, and winced as Kratos freed up some of his archers, his wizard was going to be in trouble in a little bit.

"Damn it!" Lloyd freed up one of his archers from 'hiding' and positioned him to attack Kratos' sniper.

"Language Lloyd." Kratos scolded, then he continued his story, told the tale of Mithos as Lloyd had never heard it before. A story where there were no angels, there was no Chosen. A story that could have very well gotten Kratos into a ton of trouble anywhere else. As they played on, Lloyd had to wonder, which story was true. They finally stopped half way in a game because Lloyd was yawning so much his jaws began to hurt.

"Go to bed Lloyden, there will be other nights." Kratos murmured as Lloyd began to yawn but protest that he was wide awake.

"Mm… fine fine…" Lloyd growled, grouchy for being over ruled. "Ne…" Lloyd's words ended in a mumble, he tried again. "Next time I've got more of the pieces done… I'll give 'em to you."

"I would appreciate it." Kratos said softly, fingers absently tracing one of the few remaining pieces with slow teasing caresses. "I would like that very very much."

Lloyd stretched. "G'night."

"Good night."

There was something in the man's tone, a strong almost pull made him turn around. Lloyd turned, stared at the man. Kratos had forgotten him it seemed, was focused on the gift. Almost entranced by it. It was as if never having gotten one before. And suddenly Lloyd knew, he knew that Kratos never had been given a gift before. Or maybe hadn't gotten one in a long long time.

That seemed really sad somehow, sadder then sad. There wasn't enough words to say how sad that idea was to Lloyd. They hadn't had much, but his father occasionally went out of his way to make something for him, and he for his father. He did it with his friends too, worked with wood because it was easier then steel and you could carry it around to work on it when you had nothing else to do.

"Go to sleep Lloyd." Kratos whispered softly, his voice choked, and there were tears in his eyes, honest to the Gods _tears._

"Kratos are you OK?"

"I'm fine, but you need your sleep."

Lloyd considered pushing, considered pressing and getting the man to tell him what was wrong, and as if sensing that Kratos looked to him and smiled.

"It's been almost eighteen years since I was given a gift, this… means more to me then you can imagine… Please, for a while I need to be alone."

"Alright." Lloyd whispered, "If that's what you want, alright."

Kratos chuckled, looked back on the knight, the knight that looked much as he did. He listened as Lloyd went to the bed, laid down and was soon fast asleep. He stood stroking that knight, caressing the wood, until dawn.

Xxx

"Washtubs!" Lloyd stared at them in shock. "These aren't boats they're…"

"Washtubs… hmmm…" Kratos cocked his head to the side. "I've never… imagined a stranger way to travel."

"Oh this looks fun!" Colette chirped.

Everyone else rolled their eyes.

Raine whirled on Kratos.

"This is all your fault!" The woman poked Kratos in the chest. "If you hadn't been so stuffy and insulted Candy by turning down her invitation to dinner then she wouldn't set us on these… these..."

"It wasn't that innocent, and you aren't enough of a fool to see that it was not some innocent little dinner she wanted." Kratos growled, his eyes blazing.

"Guys!" Lloyd put himself between the adults, he pushed them apart and gave them both a long look. "We'll make this work, heck me and Genis used a washtub to race around the lake when we were little."

"One of the more stupid things we did."

"Nah painting that verse on Ivan's house was the stupidest…"

"You did that!" Raine shrilled, her hand descended and Lloyd winced at the hit. "that's vandalism young man!"

"What's my name again?" Lloyd whimpered, rubbing his head.

Kratos firmly pulled him away from Raine, muttering something about pointed eared psychopaths.

"Come on Raine, let's go!" Genis was getting antsy, after he spent all night reading about geysers he wanted to see one. He grabbed Raine's arm and she let out a scream that made them all gap.

"Ahh…" Lloyd muttered, staring at Raine in shock. "Professor are you sc-"

"I am not scared of water!" Raine snapped, promises of a Rain-ing dancing in her eyes, at that horrible threat Lloyd cringed back.

"I didn't even say anything." Lloyd hissed to Kratos.

"There are four tubs." Kratos said, refusing to answer Lloyd at the moment when Raine was in hearing range. "There are five of…"

"Bark!"

Noishe shoved his way past Kratos and hopped into a tub.

"No Noishe, you can't come with.."

"Grrr!"

"Out, now!"

"GRRR!"

The argument grew louder on both sides, Kratos only looked at it, rose an eyebrow but continued.

"There are three tubs, five of us."

"That's easy, two a tub, and someone gets their own tub." Genis then stared at Raine who was as pale as a ghost. "I think someone should go with Raine… What I can't I'm too short to pull me and Raine in that thing."

Both swordsmen looked at each other, gazed at Colette who was cheerfully dipping her toes into the water and singing a ditty about rowing a boat, then looked at Raine.

"Hey, ever play Sword, Shield, Staff, before?" Lloyd asked the mercenary.

"No, but I guess it's time I learned."

Xxx

"You cheated!" Kratos hissed, as he unlooped the rope around the pier, a paddle in hand.

"Oh shut up, like I have it any better." Lloyd growled, tying Noishe's 'boat' to his. The dog looked pleased with the arrangement. Set on going, he'd howled so shrilly that Candy had come out to tell them that they had to take Noishe with them, that or the guards of the temple would do something about the 'racket'.

"Lloyd, let's go!" Genis chirped, hopping up and down in the raft.

"He's going to make it fall over before we get their." Lloyd grumbled, finishing the last knot.

"Capsize." Kratos corrected.

Lloyd favored the man with a long nasty look, ideas of 'accidentally' 'capsizing' Kratos' 'boat' danced in his head.

Xxx

Colette was thrilled, she hummed her song and then once they were out at sea began to sing.

"Row, row, row, your boat gently down the stream! Merrily merrily merrily merrily merrily merrily merrily merrily merrily…"

"Whine!" Noishe slicked back his ears in pain, Colette had a nice voice it was just painful to hear that word over and over again.

"Merrily, merrily merrily merrily merily…"

"Chosen, it's only four "merrily"s!" Kratos called, sounding a little panicked.

"Oh sorry… Once I start it's kind of hard to know when to stop!"

"Sing something else then!" Kratos called, Raine was a ball of whimpering terror that had it's claw- erm arms wrapped around him. It was all he could do to paddle.

"Oh I know, 'It's the song that never ends it goes on and on my…"

"Must not kill client…" Kratos mutered, tried to focus on his paddling. "Must not kill client."

It had been an hour of her singing and not stopping, an hour of listening to childish ditties and "merrily"s and religious hymns. An hour of non-stop singing. They all were muttering Kratos' mantra to themselves at some point. Happy to have her own boat, Colette paddled and sang with abandon, she was a natural at this, and had to actually slow down and wait for everyone to catch up to her.

"Hey, I know a good song!" Genis smirked. "Row row row the boat gently down the stream, throw the mercenary over board and listen to him scream!" Genis ended his song with a muttered spell and the waters around Kratos rose up and splashed him in the face. Snarling the mercenary glared, but several feet away he could do nothing unless he planed on hopping out of his tub and swimming up to Lloyd and Genis' then throwing Lloyd overboard to have room to thrash Genis. Screaming in terror Raine dug her nails into his waist as the water fell into the 'boat'.

"The second we land boy…" Kratos hissed.

"Someone started singing it never knowing what it was…"

"If we _last_ that long," Lloyd whined, rubbing his head. "Colette, try a different song, please?"

She giggled, then launched into a religious hymn about sera-fooms or whatever. Lloyd just sighed and kept paddling.

"Whine!" Noishe put his paws over his ears.

"You and me both." Genis said, patting the dog's head. The dog's tail thumped against the side of the 'boat' and he barked cheerfully.

"Hey, Kratos, how long till we get there."

Kratos glared at him, probably thinking that it was going to be a repeat of the Iselian temple.

"Honest, all I wanna know is if this is gunna take another hour."

"Less then half if we hurry, I swear if that assassin is out there she'll be able to follow us with all this… 'music'." Kratos shivered.

"Fa la la la la…" Colette had started some winter's festival song.

"What about we really hurry?" Lloyd whimpered, his ears were killing him. "Really really really hurry."

There was no more talking as they all focused on paddling, all except the singing, the endless singing. If there was a Martel even she would be driven crazy by all this singing, Lloyd decided. Never again would he ask Colette to sing a song to pick up the pace of the journey. Kratos picked up his mantra, Genis and Colette's nick-names (must not kill elf and client) now added into it. Raine and Noishe had a whimpering competition, and the distance between Thodia and them closed at a snails pace.

It was going to be a long trip.

Review response:

Crazygirl306: Thanks the syrup scene was a fav of mine too. I imagine if you like that brand of humor the washtub scene will rock your boat… or should I say row?

FallenStarAngel: ditto, hence the anti-magnius rant. Well thanks hopefully this one is just as good. Yeah… about the Ranch, I'll mention it next chapter, (don't tell anyone I forgot !) I'll squeak it in somehow.

Shadowddwolf: I've been busy writing. Glad it makes your day better shadow, and no fears about Kvar, he will probably be evil enough to give you the chills. In DES I was told he did that and I took enough notes on how to present him in that story that I know how to do it here. And he had his eyes open, maybe I'll have an explanation on that for the sake of some humor.

Gamecubegirl1: I love fluff/quirky scenes too, so I ry to squeeze as many in as I can. I answered you via e-mail about the name (please don't put in spoilers in your review btw) so I won't rehash that… you'll probably love the "row" scene.


	18. Liquid Flame

chapter 17

Liquid Flame

_To my readers, _

_Drama at the Geyser, some humor, and after being called a jerk so many times Kratos gets a not so subtle revenge on the rest of the group in the temple. Warning, long chapter, and that battle I skimped on the details… well in the game I find listening to them fight is almost as entertaining as watching, so I now inflict it all on you. (evil laughter) First half of the temple, this one's two chapters long… Main issue that slows me –and them- down, RAINE, I swear she needs psychological help… Review responses will be at the bottom of the next chapter! Enjoy! _

_Kasan Soulblade _

Raine had crawled out of the tub, crawled across the dock and upon reaching the beach of the small island had closed her eyes and refused to move. No one had gotten her to move, not Genis, not Colette, no one. Shrugging Kratos had walked off, said "time alone would help" and had taken Genis and Colette with him. Lloyd had been worried, didn't like the idea of leaving Raine by herself, so despite the fact that it scared him a little by how she was acting he sat on one of the posts on the dock and stood watch over her. Her silver hair was tangled; it fell into her eyes, obscured her face and hid her pointed ears. Her orange coat pooled around her, like folded bird's wings, and her black pants were turning scaly from picking up the grains of sand and not letting go. Raine's fingers gripped the rocky earth so tightly that her somewhat naturally pale skin looked bone white. He remembered how pale she was, how she trembled, taking his hand in her own and allowing him to pull her from the boat.

OK it wasn't a boat but a washtub but still…

"Professor," He walked to her, gripped her shoulder and she was still shaking.

She had been crouching in the sand for at least ten minuets and she was still shaking. Hesitantly he slung an arm over her shoulders, she shivered, whimpered softly. He crouched besides her, held her and she shuddered less then an animal from her terror. He knew this kind of fear; it was the same paralyzing fear that took him when it was thundering outside.

"It'll be easier if you don't look at it." He whispered, and helped her to her feet. They didn't go far, just to a large enough rock for her to sit on. She collapsed, bowed her head and again her hair served as a screen for her face. Stubbornly he held her up, did not allow her to curl up into a ball, though that's all she really seemed to want to do. He held her up, patted her back, let her know she wasn't alone. It seemed to work, she stopped whimpering at least. Now that she wasn't as bad he could hear and focus on the outside world. Up a head, beyond a winding path, there was a babble of voices, a loud hiss and some cries of shock, some scattered applause. They were clapping for a geyser, and people called him weird!

"You OK?" He mumbled, feeling like the stupidest guy on the earth. Of course she wasn't OK! Dummy, he mentally kicked himself, she's not going to be OK until they left.

She only gripped him like a lifeline, her nails were kinda sharp. Still he didn't say anything. Half held her up, half hugged, and she leaned against him shivering. She burrowed her face into his shoulder and a suspicious wetness gathered around her eyes and fell onto his shoulder.

"We're safe; we won't be going back for long while." He murmured, hesitantly stroking her hair.

She seemed to relax a little more, a least she wasn't gouging him with her claw like fingers.

He felt eyes on him, looked up and saw Kratos staring at them both. His eyes were wide in horror and shock, then they seemed to burn as he thought of something that he didn't like. Oh shit, Lloyd knew that look! The black clad mercenary was going to bite off Raine's head because he was mad. He gathered the ruminants of his courage and met the man's fiery gaze; he then jerked his head, mutely telling Kratos to leave. Kratos' lips curled in a silent snarl, he was going to come down the path and probably hurt Raine because… well who knew why! It didn't matter! He met snarl for snarl and the man blinked, looked weary. Lloyd jerked his head again, firmly ordered the man to go somewhere else, and Kratos met his gaze. There was a long tense silence, the air crackled between them, then Kratos nodded, backed off for now. Sighing a little in relief Lloyd patted Raine's back.

"Professor, can you walk a little?"

Raine shivered, nodded, and stood using her staff to stand. She leaned against the staff, he slung an arm under one of her own and helped her too. Slowly he led her away from the beach away from the ocean. She staggered, almost Colette stepped, but between staff and him she couldn't fall. The farther they got the more like herself she was. The second they couldn't see the beach anymore she lifted her head, looked at the mess of tourists and seemed to take comfort in the babble of voice. She was almost better, almost walking on her own, until she saw the geyser, her blue eyes went wide and she crumpled against him with a soft little cry. Spotting some benches Lloyd took her to them; helped her sit down. Water all around, a pit of steaming water that spat out at the heavens and thrashed against the pull of the earth, little wonder she was scared to death. Whimpering Raine was unaware of the pitying looks she was gathering from the tourists, she was unaware of the stares. Lloyd ignored them best he could, held her up best he could. She was taller then him though, so it was harder then it looked.

A noise of disgust made him look up, he looked into the scornful face of Kratos. The mercenary stood, a black smear against the pale colored garments of the tourists, he crossed his arms, glared at Raine.

"If you are this weakened by your terror Ms. Sage…" he began, Lloyd's patience snapped and he stood.

"Kratos shut up!" He snarled.

The mercenary favored him with an icy glare, Lloyd met those cold eyes, did not cringe back as he had so many times before.

"What did you say?"

"I said…" Lloyd hissed. "Shut the Hell up! Leave her alone, she's having a bad enough time as it is without you making it worse!"

Kratos' eyes filled with fury.

"She's using you as some damn…"

"Go away, go somewhere else, now." Lloyd whispered, gripping the hilt of his swords.

Kratos was a trained swordsman, a soldier, he would not miss the tale tell clenching of the fists, would not miss the animal fury that burned in Lloyd's eyes. Lips curling in a snarl Kratos shifted his stance slightly, gripped the hilt of his blade.

"You have no right…" Kratos hissed, his eyes widened when Lloyd drew a blade on him.

"Leave us alone."

Staring at the steel, eyes blazing with hatred he spared a glance at the trembling Professor, clearly pinning all the blame on her. He nodded, walked off, and Lloyd sheathed his sword. He told his hands to shake on some other day, and then sat down.

"I'm sorry…" Raine whispered, her hands holding onto her knees so hard they were bloodless white. "If I…"

"Don't worry about it." He tried to smile, patted her shoulder. "He's just being a jack ass, and how could we go to this historical place without you anyways. Think of all the stuff we'd miss learning…"

Raine's eyes brightened a little and she hugged him, though not with the desperation she'd shown earlier. Being hugged by Raine was just… weird. She smoothed his hair and told him to go run along, he hesitated and she gave him a small nudge.

"Go on dear, I'll be fine."

Hesitantly he did so, but when he turned back to check on her she was as pale as she had been on the beach…

Frowning, staying close enough to see her and the geyser he wondered what he could do to make her better, he kicked a small rock under the protective rail, watched it skitter over the edge and sink into the water with a loud hiss. He stared at the water, trying to kick his normally slow mind into some level of speed to think…

"Man this is sooo boring!" One tourist in plain brown tunic and pants grumbled. "All the stupid guild says is what's on the sign; you'd think they'd post someone here that knew about this thing!"

Lloyd smiled, a slow smug smile as his idea came together with a near audible click. He left the rail and slipped in the tail end of the tourist group, then spent a long moment getting his last look a the world around him. Satisfied that he'd seen all he wanted to before he died he cleared his throat. The guild looked at him, looking very offended.

She got even more offended when he opened his mouth and began to whine in what was known as "Genis whine high form" it was the kind of whine that could be heard for miles around and was guaranteed to grate on the nerves.

Which is exactly what he wanted.

Xxx

"I can't believe…" Kratos snarled, pacing in the shadows of a cluster of boulders on the far side of the geyser. It was the only patch of gloom in the whole area, a spot of darkness, and he blended in with it well enough. "The nerve of… I'll… that damn woman's…"

"Jealous?" piped a voice behind him. Kratos turned, stared at the silver haired elf with enough venom to pollute rivers for centuries. Unfazed the short elf that came up to his waist glared up at him, hands resting on his hips. "I guess the fact that Lloyd actually _cares_ about someone besides you really gets to you huh?"

Kratos went crimson, his lips curled into a snarl.

"Well guess what, you may not like us, I certainly don't like you, but if you're going to stay on Lloyd's friend list you're going to have to suck it up."

Kratos shivered in anger, gripped the hilt of his blade.

"You have been acting like a spoiled brat. The _second_ he hangs with anyone besides you, you pout and sulk like the brat you accuse me of being!" Genis flared, no longer scared of the man, seeing perhaps the truth of the swordsman at long last.

He was short, not stupid, he's seen the glares, he'd seen Kratos anger when Lloyd came with Raine, when he took care of Raine instead of leaving her alone. Genis would have stayed too, but he wouldn't leave Colette with this guy alone for five seconds if he could help it. He knew Lloyd could help Raine, probably better then he could, so he'd trusted Lloyd.

He might wonder if some of the things he'd do were stupid, but there was one he'd never doubt. He'd always trust Lloyd, even if Lloyd was a little thick sometimes.

Taking a deep breath Kratos released his blade, his expression thoughtful, maybe he wasn't as stupid as Genis thought he was.

"Perhaps… you have a point."

"Whatever." Genis turned away from the man in black, not caring anymore; he'd talked to him because Lloyd needed him to, not because he wanted to.

"Give your sister my apologies." Kratos said softly.

"How about you act mature and do it yourself?" The wizard growled, storming off, he meant to go back, a loud scream of fury made him stop. Kratos joined him, blade clearing its sheath in a heart beat. That was Raine but what…

"How dare you!" She screamed, there was a loud thump and the crowd of humans parted, a dazed man wearing a long brimmed hat smashed into the earth, dazed. Writen on his hat were the words, "Trodia Geyser Tour Services", Genis knew that because a breeze rolled the hat in his direction and he picked it up to read it. "Can you not comprehend the historical significance of this place! This geyser, I'll let you know has shaped the whole history of this region! How are you claim that it is of no significance, a mere natural phenomenon, what kind of guild are you?" Raine shrilled; in full Ruin Mode glory she was oblivious that her well placed kick had knocked the man out cold. "During the ancient Khalan war… don't you DARE slink off Lloyd! We're on an island and you can't get away from listening to me this once! You're the one who asked the question, you will listen to the answer!"

"Yes Professor…" Lloyd sighed, bowed his head.

Colete skipped up to them, left the dog –how she found a dog on the island was beyond them- a smile wide on her face.

"Isn't it great? The Professor's feeling better! Come on Genis, let's go listen to her talk!" Colette snatched Genis' arm.

Noishe, who had been abandoned so that the stray could be petted whined a protest, he padded up to Colette and favored her with his best puppy eyed gaze. That earned him a scritch, which gave Genis one second to think that Colette would forget about going to the lecture. But it only lasted a second, and when that time was up Colette dragged him with her with all enthused.

"Come on Genis, I'll be fun, we haven't had a lesson in a while!"

"Oh fun…" Genis grumbled, really having no say in the matter.

He saw Kratos give the tourist group a weary glance, then caught Genis' eye.

"Help me!" The wizard mouthed, not caring who saved him so long as he was saved.

Kratos lifted his hand, _waved_, than decided that the rocks he had been pacing in front of might serve better as a shield if he slipped behind them.

Noishe went with him.

Lucky dog…

Whimpering a prayer Genis was dragged through the group of startled tourists.

Xxx

"Oh I have a question!" Colette lifted her arm and danced in place. Everyone had glazed eyes, the tourists, the scholar from PlamaCosta, Genis, and Lloyd, and maybe somewhere behind his rock so did Kratos and Noishe. All except Colette, who kept asking question after question.

"Go right ahead and ask dear." Raine beamed, the physical embodiment of cheer, it was so strong it seemed to shoot out of her eyes and make them glow with happiness.

Well it was happiness if you asked Coeltte.

Anyone who'd survived Raine's "Ruin Mode" knew insanity when they saw it.

"Why's there something shiney in the geyser?"

"Hmm?" Raine looked over went a little pale at the sight of the water but found the shiny thing on the wall. It was the far wall, a section with no rail, but then a solid wall of stone dripping water that was hundred of degrees how was impassable to even the most skilled mountain climber. The steam was thick, it was impossible to tell what it was.

"I don't know dear, someone must of dropped someth…"

Raine went paler, Genis woke up from his trance, as did Lloyd did from his nap.

"Mmm…" Lloyd yawned, stretched, "that was a nice nap! Is class over?"

For once Raine didn't pounce, did not yell at him for falling asleep during a lecture, they all scooted to the rail and stared at the flickering metallic item.

"The statue I presume." Kratos announced dryly, they all hopped, no one had heard him sneak up behind them. "The priest did not joke when he said it would be difficult to retrieve."

"Drop.. _drop_… he must of thrown it!" Lloyd sputtered, "How the heck can we get that, when it's way out there?"

"See, look past the steam, there's stones, a log of them we could stone skip across." Colette offered, and then frowned. "It'd be really hard though because of the steam wouldn't it?"

"Not forgetting the thousand degree water, I think the steam would be the lesser of two evils." Kratos said, leaning against the rail, he stared at the statue, or what they thought the statue was.

"Now what?" Lloyd whined, picking up a rock he was going to throw it in the pool but Raine stopped him.

"Don't you dare!"

"It's not like I'm gunna hit someone!" Lloyd protested.

He was promptly smacked and dragged away from the rail by the elder of the Sage sibs.

"Raine!" Lloyd whined, "I swear, I wasn't going to do something stupid!"

"Lloyd, you always do stupid things." Genis grinned. "Like that time you hung the white sheet as a hollows fest prank from out rafters."

Lloyd was smacked again, as Raine had not known who did that and scared them both sensless by jumping from the rafters saying boo while wrapped in a white blanket.

"And the time when you went to class by climbing down the bell tower…"

There was another smack, as Raine had not known about that either.

"And when you climbed up to the temple roof and the priests were leaving dumped those fish you caught on their hats."

Lloyd whimpered, and was again hit.

"Or how about…"

There was a firm smack as Kratos cuffed the small elf's ear.

"Sorry, I thought I saw a wasp."

Genis glared up at him, Raine was firmly taking Lloyd's ear between two fingers and given him a sharp lecture about pulling stupid stunts.

"Ow ow ow… OK OK I'll never do something stupid ever again!" Lloyd wailed. "Please… ear bleeding…"

He was let go at last. He limped off, nursing a sore head, ear, and butt.

"You are soo dead when I can move." Lloyd whined as he limped past.

Genis only stuck out his tongue. "That's what you get for calling me shortie!"

Kratos put his hand on the elf's head, leaned against him as he had the rail and then looked up startled.

"Excuse me; I thought that you were the rail."

Sputtering, for the rail was actually shorter then he was, Genis wiggled his fingers and summoned a chunk of ice. Kratos ducked the mana driven throw, and there was a 'chink' from below.

"Oh lookie! It's all icy now!"

Everyone, minus Lloyd, went to the rail.

Noishe whistled through his fangs, his tail making slow sweeps as he stared at the ice platform Genis had made, it was large enough for the horse sized dog to stand upon.

"Well that solves one problem." Kratos muttered, "Now who's going to be stupid enough to actually go down?"

"No, I won't do it!" Genis said firmly. "I can't freeze up the whole geyser like that, it is way too big!"

"Someone could hop across on the platforms." Colette chirped.

There was a loud crack, the ice had split in half, drifted apart and in a few seconds was totally gone.

"Who'd wanna do that?" Genis wondered aloud, staring at the now gone ice in horror, it had lasted less then thirty seconds.

"Someone very stupid" Kratos rumbled, "or very desperate."

Xxx

"It's just like hop skip right?" Lloyd asked, rolling over on the bench to look at his horrified friends. "What'd I say?"

"No, absolutely not!" Kratos snarled. "It's suicide to…"

"Look, if I get some practice it won't be bad." Lloyd said confidently.

"Lloyd Irving do you understand what a thousand degrees ferenhight means?" Raine gasped. "It's hotter then your father's forge!"

"It's not that hot." Lloyd protested. "I mean nothings hotter then Triet, and if Genis ice's it then it won't be bad."

"Ice explodes when it meets boiling water." Raine protested, knowing that first hand as she had once tried to boils some ice to make the mythical dish of 'ice cream' some years back. "Even if you make the jumps you'll be slashed up."

"I'll take Kratos' shield." Lloyd offered.

"Get up." Kratos said quietly.

"Huh?"

"Just get up."

Lloyd did so, looking confused.

"That's thirty seconds, you getting up took more then thirty seconds."

"I'll. Be. Fine. I can take care of myself OK?" Lloyd smirked. "With a little practice I'll be fine."

"How do you propose to practice?" Kratos sounded desperate, trying to stall and talk Lloyd out of it, good thing he was because Raine and Genis were too horrified with the images that were playing in their minds of Lloyd being cooked alive to say anything.

"The beach, there are a ton of rocks there; I'll do some hopping back and forth there to warm up."

"Oh that's a good idea Lloyd!" Colette chirped

Kratos looked at her in horror, Raine and Genis agreed with the mercenary for once because they looked at the Chosen and the young swordsman in terror.

"What?" Lloyd stared at them, confused as heck.

"You want practice, fine, you'll get it." Kratos said in a tone that set chills down everyone's back. "Genis I'll have a word with you in private, the rest of you go find those rocks of his."

Raine hesitated, not liking the idea of Genis being alone with Kratos, after all she had promised.

"It's alright…" Genis waved Raine off. "It's OK this once.'

Nodding Raine left them alone, after all if nothing else she trusted her brother to know if he needed to call out for help, and there were a large number of interested tourists flocking about them. Kratos wouldn't dare do a thing to her baby brother. And if Kratos did hurt Genis he'd go after the statue, but with no ice spells to offer even the smallest bit of protection. She'd shove him in herself.

Xxx

"Ready!" Lloyd called to them he was standing on the beach, a large number of rocks jutted out from the water, making the beach impassable but to save the smallest of crafts.

"Mr. Sage, give him the signal when you are prepared." Kratos flexed his fingers in his gloves, fire then ice, all the rocks would be pelted with fireballs, the waters would steam and boil under his power then Genis would begin to freeze the rocks and Lloyd would begin his mad scramble. Raine's staff had been put on the rock farthest out, since it was heavy and inconvenient to carry it would represent the worse case scenario for the Spiritua Statue had be a one of a kind and none knew how much it had weighed and none could recall it's exact shape since it had been a few weeks since they'd seen the counterfeit.

A spear of lighting slashed through the air, Lloyd crouched, ripped Kratos' shield as tightly as he could.

The waters hissed, exploded with red light and swelled lapping at the swordsman's toes. Lloyd merely lifted the shield to block some of the droplets, which could burn like acid now that they were super heated.

"Left!" Genis roared, calling on his mana to freeze the rock to Lloyd's left. The platform was large, Lloyd jumped to it easily.

"Right!" Genis barked, his voice rising over the pounding of the tides.

And so it went, Lloyd got to the staff with no mishaps, the crowd of tourists cheered and Lloyd spun the staff over his head in response.

"Cut the platforms to a fifth of their old size." Kratos whispered, he set a flash of fire to the sky indicating that they were taking a break to charge their mana.

"Rodger."

Noishe whined, tugged Raine's sleeve with a gentle bite. The elf could not look from the spectacle of her pupil risking life and limb to prove he was worthy of taking a suicide mission. She could not look away. So she missed it as another tub reached the dock and a young woman in purple slipped out.

Xxx

He made it back, almost falling in two times on the return trip. The tourists screamed in fear when he had to use the staff to check a slide to avoid a bath in the scalding hot waters. It was only then he realized just how dangerous this was, ad began to pay a little more attention to what he was doing. He made it back, the water cooled, stopped boiling, and before anyone could bother with sending a tub he tied shield and staff to him by way of his extra belt then swam back.

"Happy now?" He called to them, as he doggie paddled back. Kratos rose an eyebrow at his swimming style and Lloyd stuck his tongue out, and almost had a mouthful of salt water to drink as a result. "Noishe taught me to swim." Lloyd growled. "So I swim like my dog, I bet you can' even swim at all!"

"I can swim." Kratos shook his head. "Have you thought this through? Considered everything?"

Everyone around him could hear the unspoken plea, that the boy take back his offer.

"Yep, let's take a break so Genis can freeze more stuff and then let's go- ouch!" Lloyd scrambled out of the water, clicking it's hands together like teasing applause was a crab.

"That's an ill omen if I ever saw one." Raine said in a tight voice as the crab chased after the swordsman claws clicking together.

"Run Lloyd!" Colette chirped.

The crab reared up, claws clicking madly, then scuttled back to the water.

"Stupid crab… oww… Why does every animal hate me?"

"I bet he was just trying to shake hands!" Colette said brightly.

"Un huh…" Lloyd untied the belt and tossed Raine her staff, he tehn worked off the shield and dumped that on the ground. At last no longer burdened he put the belt back in it's place. "Come on, let's go guys!"

"How _did_ you manage to live this long?" Kratos sighed.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly as it sounds." Kratos rubbed his temples. "I am more then capable of fetching…"

"I got it, don't worry so much old man." Lloyd patted Kratos' head. The mercenary's glare was not as vicious as normal and seemed touched with something else. Lloyd not skilled at reading the man's subtle expressions within an expression, could not see the quiet desperation in those brown black eyes.

Xxx

She gapped, stared at shock as the red clad boy tossed his swords aside and swung himself over the rail to lean into the seaming edge of the geyser's rim. It was so small that his toes were hanging over. The black clad man with wild auburn hair that masked his face frowned, arms crossed over his chest. The young swordsman made a shooing gesture and the man snarled something back. Obviously he wasn't leaving yet. They had a heated exchange of some sort, the tourists around her were babbling like mad men. They talked of the Chosen, of these two being companions of the Chosen and going after a statue. If she wanted to really hurt the regeneration she could merely step in, make this attempt a failure. Yet to be honest it was doomed to failure, no way a little kid like that could gather enough mana in this dried up world to ice a geyser. She decided to sit back and watch, if things went badly enough perhaps the Chosen would give up and she wouldn't have to do her job. That was a cheering thought, killing the Chosen, from what she'd seen and heard of her, would be the same as drowning a puppy, as she was a complete innocent.

She drifted to the edge of the crowd to eavesdrop, and paled when the black clad man snapped his eyes on her. His lips curled back into a snarl, and the green monster at his feet mimed the gesture.

"Be careful Lloyd." The blonde hugged the red clad boy. Wasn't that the kid who'd demanded surrender rather then battle when he held all the advantages? If so little wonder on her part he was crazy letting an assassin go, this was just another sign of his craziness.

"My healing can only go so far, so be cautious." The tall silver haired woman ordered in a cold controlled voice.

"Cau-te-ss?" The boy laughed at the woman's expression. "I'll be fine, guy's me and Genis do crazy stuff like this all the time."

"Like changing my test around last class?" The silver haired woman called "professor" asked softly.

"Yep, compared to that this is nothing!"

"Oh Lloyd…" She ruffled his hair leaned forward and muttered something in his ear that the assassin couldn't catch. Then gave him a peck on the cheek.

"I promise." The red clad boy -Lloyd?- said, blushing.

"Take these." The black clad man turned from her and fished out something from the packs that were scattered around his feet. He tossed them and Lloyd freed up a hand to catch them.

"Leather gloves?"

"They'll offer some protection for your hands when you pick up the statue."

"Thanks Kratos!"

"Hurmph, don't thank the man who sends you to your death boy." The man gripped the rail, stared into the steamy waters. "I'll cast my wind spell to disperse the steam as much as I can, Mr. Sage will then begin when he is ready."

"Alright…" The kid fumbled on the gloves, actually letting go of the railing with both hands to do so!

That caused everyone, tourists, Chosen, Chosen's friends, and Assassin to gasp in terror.

"Oh Gods…" The man was as pale as a sheet, he leaned weakly against the stone wall behind him. "I am not suited for this…"

"Genis! Let's go already!"

"Kratos… can you do this?" A kid so short she'd looked over him asked, he had silver hair like the cold woman with the pointed ears.

"Yes…" The man swallowed, looked sick. "I have no choice it seems…" He bowed his head, lifted a hand to the heavens.

"The breath of life, the motion between the span of eternity, come to my call. On thy wings fly forth to from my hand unto this world to shape, to change…"

"Maiden of ice, shower us with slivers of your spender…"

And the steam hissed and stood aside from not the breeze that the black clad man summoned, but a gale. The skies darkened and the howling entity seemed to caress him, set his cloak to flapping like a pair of sinister wings. Snowflakes appeared from no where, fell around the silver haired child.

The boy jumped, with no word, landed upon the block of ice barely large enough to hold him. It had appeared as large as a horse, but already the hellish hot waters were working it down to nothing.

"Left!" The silver haired woman screamed. So deep was his trance that silver haired child responded to her cries as well as the red clad boy.

And so it began…

Xxx

"No!" Colette screamed, seeing the platform Lloyd was to hop to split in twain by a random gout of steaming water before her friend could even think of making the jump. "Lloyd!"

She drew her wings, a hand snatched hers, held her back. She was shoved back, fell over her won feet and watched in horror as Kratos threw his sword aside and jumped in after Lloyd.

"Oh My Goddes…." Raine gasped in horror. "Genis, focus on the beginning, Kratos went down there!"

"What!" Genis snapped his eyes open in shock, lost his trance and saw how bad things were. Kratos was milling about on one of the rocks in the beginning, Lloyd was cringing back from the widening blast of steam at the end. More importantly he felt the numbing waves of fatigue. He staggered, he'd tapped deeper into his power then he had ever before. Dumbly he stared, unable to even think of his own name much less cast a spell.

"Genis!" Colette was up, shaking him so hard it hurt. "Do something!"

"He can't he has nothing left!" Raine took her brothers hand in her own, her mana flowed into him, it wasn't much but it kept him from blacking out.

A chill slid down Raine's spine she looked, saw Lloyd staring at them with understanding in his eyes. There would be no more spells, he knew that, did no question or rage against it. He took a step back, lifted his arm. His ex-sphere glowed with a brilliance of a fallen star.

"Lloyd, no! Kratos roared, his cry blended with her own, with Noishe's, with Colette's.

Ignoring them he crouched, then jumped over the gout of water. There was a gasp from the crowd, cries, murmurs, they wondered and worried and did nothing, and those who might have been able to do something were to drained to even try. There was a long pause after that cry, Kratos was yelling something in that strange language of his, his own ex-sphere was glowing almost as wildly as Lloyd's had…

"I got it!"

Everyone stopped breathing.

"Well I think it's it…"

"Are you alright!" Kratos roared over the steam.

There was a long pause.

Y… yeah I'm fine… Kratos, what rock are you on? I can't see a thing here."

"The third!"

"Think fast!" Lloyd yelled, something flashed through the air, Kratos caught it hissed in pain and ripped off his cloak to wrap the thing up.

"Raine!" Kratos snarled, tossing the bundle up, the elf barely made the catch. She tossed the statue to the earth, not caring for it at the moment.

Genis was ripping his packs apart, drew the orange sludge like gel from a pouch and made a face. He wolfed it down with no complaints, ate three of them though on the third he nearly gagged. He shuddered as the mana stored in the packets filled him, shuddered because artificial mana restoration was not the safest of most comfortable way to have it done.

"Lloyd!" Genis yelled, "I can cast the spel again."

There ws an ominous silence.

"Lloyd!" Colette cried out. "Lloyd!"

"Alright…" The voice was quiet, subdued. "I'm ready when you are."

"Are you hurt?" Kratos called, "One of us can come for you!"

Which meant Kratos would be the would be rescuer, since he was hopping from foot to foot in agony as the super hot rock was eating through his boots and cooking his feet.

"I… can handle it…" There was a hiss, not caused by steam.

"Like hell you can, boy!" Kratos barked and Genis nodded.

"Icicle!"

Kratos made the jumps with a lazy grace that Lloyd had not shown. He did not skid or fall, or anything. He made each leap, and was there in much faster time then Lloyd had gotten there. He made the final jump, patiently waiting until the jet of water went all the way down, oblivious or uncaring how little 'land' he had left. He disappeared into the small grotto, and a stream of curses came out seconds later.

"Chosen, can you fly over the geyser and throw down a few apple gels." Kratos called. "He can't walk and I can't carry him through this."

"I'm fine, I can wal-"

There was a hiss of steal and Lloyd went quiet.

"Or I could…. Just lay here with your knife at my throat…"

Colette was already rummaging through the packs, fishing out red jells.

"Three only, more then three in less then five hours between them is dangerous." Raine said softly, brining the hysterical girl to some level of calm.

Colette did not fly with any grace, staggered through the air, but she managed to get to the grotto and toss two jells down before the heat made her withdraw.

Nibbling on his nails Genis moaned, and how Raine wished she could do so too. Not now, someone had to be calm.

"WHINE!" Noishe was padding the length and width of the geyser, whimpering with ever step, he seemed almost ready to hop over the rail.

"NO!" She grabbed his huge ears, made him look at her in the eyes. "Don't you can't go after them, we have to wait, it's all we can do."

Noishe shivered and looked up at her, his canine face twisting in an expression that she could read that no dog should be able to show.

There was pain, a gnawing torture, desperation, and a grief.

He looked up at her, and cried silver tears in his all too human frusteration.

Xxx

Kratos came back not to much later, despite his words he carried Lloyd in his arms, made the treck for them both. He was for once without tunic, as eh had ripped it of and made rough bandages around Lloyd's left leg.

Gently Kratos put the boy down and Raine pulled off the bandages, blustered, red, the whole of the left leg and some of the right was scorched. Raine nearly drained herself down to nothing to heal Lloyd's legs, he whimpered at the phantom pains, residue from her frantic healing, took him.

"Don't you ever do anything that stupid ever again!" Genis yelled, tears in his eyes even as he expressed his anger.

"You are in trouble young man." Raine whispered, stroking his face to tell herself he was no illusion. "Serious trouble… when I feel better…"

"We… have the statue…" Lloyd hissed, "That's all that matters right? Colette can… use that for Koton and…"

Kratos decided o snarl at that point, his fingers clenched as he imagined perhaps tossing Koton into scalding hot water for this.

Raine would have cheerfully joined him in that, made the hellish trip again just for the sake of watching.

"Everyone…" Colette whispered. "I found… another one."

"Another what?" Kratos stared at Colette his dark eyes brooding.

"I... found another oracle stone." She whispered her face red. "I tripped on some boxes and…"

"You mean we didn't even need to…" Lloyd gasped out in pain, whimpered, and lay down again. "We're doing the damn temple and then we're never ever ever coming back!" He croaked.

"Amen…" Raine whispered, ruffled Lloyd's hair and stood. "Colette if you could?"

"Yes Professor." She nodded, and went behind one of those obnoxious tourist signs.

There was a flash of light, and part of the wall crumbled away to reveal a massive mouh of a cave.

"At least…." Lloyd stood with some help. "The enrence is cool, right?"

"You think so, look, I can make it dissapear too!" Came Colette's voice from behind the sign. The light bridge between geyser and cave went out. It appeared, diapeared, appeared….

"Colette, stop playing with the holy artifact of ages past!" Kratos roared. "It's givin me a headache…"

Xxx

(spoilers ahead if you haven't gotten Sheena in your party then look for next set of x's!)

From across the geyser, still hiding amongst the tourists the assassin watched the bridge wink in and out of existence. About seven or eight times…

"I can't believe this kid I the Chosen!" The Assassin hissed.

"If you ask me," came a conversational voice from a sack she held in her hands, "I think it's much better then the alternative."

"You're telling me…" The assassin grimaced, thinking of how a certain other Chosen liked to pinch her butt ever chance he got.

"You know… it's a little stuffy in here? Just a tad, mind you, but still I'd like out if it's safe yet?"

"Oh sorry Corrine!" The assassin opened the nap sack and the fox with flowing green and blue waves as a tail tumbled out.

"Wooh… it's so nice to be out of there… next time please don't stuff me in with your old lunch nap sack, it smells of rice. While I like rice I don't like it _that_ much."

Sheena blushed, Corrine did not like being called on and off and while it saved energy to just summon Corrine for an attack Sheena liked to make her friend happy. As a matter of fact Corrine liked to walk around, travel as a person did, and had the strangest fetish for being walked like a dog. Corrine said he thought it was funny to see the human's faces go all white and listen to them try to tactfully ask what type of dog he was Sheena figured it was just Corrine being silly. For a summon spirit Corrine was rather playful and silly at times.

"Ah… They appear to be going across the bridge, if you want to catch them…"

"Oh shit!" Sheena ran past the startled people, Corrine's bell was ringing as he dashed after her, killing any chance for stealth. Still they didn't notice, they went up the gently sloping path of light, the black clad man with a scarred back was helping the red clad one walk... If she went just a little faster she might be able to….

"Howl!"

A green blur with teeth and claws skidded to a stop in front of her, teeth bared, eyes blazing. She backed up and the second she did so the hostility went away, it sat and looked to the bridge…

"Get out of the way or I'll…"

The bridge winked out, her targets were gone.

"Ung, you stupid animal!"

Noishe wiggled his ears, lolled out his tongue and promptly lay down atop the packs that had been left behind.

"What a strange beast…" Corrine went forward, sniffed the air in front of the monster and his ears slicked back. "Ung… it smells like wet dog!"

"Bark!"

The tail wagged with glee and he padded up to them both rubbing himself over them both so he could share the charming smell.

"Whine whine bark!"

"It is not funny!" Corrine snorted shaking himself off.

"You can understand it?" Sheena gapped at her friend.

"Oh yes, it thinks it's being quite funny at the moment."

As if to agree the dog met her gaze and winked, it then went to one of the nap sacks, nibbled on the strings and pulled one of them open. Wagging it's tail, yipping happily it nosed through the sack and then came out with a tiny pouch that it presented to her.

"What the?"

"Whine?" The animal gave her this wide eyes pathetic look and its tail curled into a ball on its side. "Whimper…"

"I think… it wants you to take the pouch…" Corrine whispered softly.

"Alright…" Sheena reached out and took the small sack, and then as the dog whined again she opened it, inside was spiced jerky. The pouch was snatched out of her hand by glittering teeth, and the sack was promptly turned over. The green dog, with massive ears that would have done a rabbit proud in length and absurd size, helped itself to the contents of its treat bag. It did thoughtfully offer a slice to Corrine and then well… wolfed down the rest in a few moments. Sighing happily the dog wagged its tail then slipped the pouch back into the pack, and went back to nosing through all the packs it could get open.

"Excuse me Miss."

The purple clad assassin turned to see a battered looking man sporting the clothes suited to a guide of the geyser.

"We're closing now, we wouldn't' want to leave you on the island overnight now would we?"

He smiled at her, and she swore if his gaze went down he'd have another set of bruises to match the first.

He just smiled cheerfully at her, oblivious to her ah, physical endowments.

Biting her lip the Assassin tried to think of another excuse, she could lie, say she was with the Chosen. There were too many holes in that tale to make it even remotely feasible, after all the man seemed innocent, but innocence did not necessary entail stupidity.

"Do you have an inn here? Or a temporary EC tourist camp site for those who want to stay here over night?"

"EC what?"

"Talk about parimiti… err bark?" Corrine sent waves of embarrassment and an unspoken apology for forgetting his role down the thread of mana that bound them both together. Sheena tried not to smile, she had been thinking the exact same thing.

"Did that dog just…"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" The assassin grinned, a sheen of swear forming on her brow at the man's scrutiny. Then she recalled the pompous light girls she'd seen in Mal-tokio and picked up their tone as much as she could. "Come along poochy it's time to go back on the boat now."

Corrine laughed in her mind at his new name and poor Zelos' floozy impersonation. Sheena winked at him when the tour guide wasn't looking.

"I guess asking you to leave would be rather dumb huh?" The man said to the dog.

"Bark!"

"Well since you are with the Chosen I guess I have to leave you here."

Sheena could have hit herself, so he would have trusted her if she had said she was with the Chosen, stupid, stupid, stupid!

"Him, I'd say yes he is." Corrine muttered as he walked by her feet.

"I don't know about that, everyone here seems rather trusting, like a little kid trusting in an adult."

Corrine's bell rang out with a cheer neither were feeling at the moment, she recalled another set of cheerful bells and a man with red hair and soft green eyes. That priest had trusted, even as his town was being burned around him he'd drawn the children to him with a hushed tale of the Chosen, held them together in that hellish blaze and slaughter with his faith.

"When we face death and betrayal all we have is faith, isn't that what the Martel scriptures say?" Corrine whispered.

The hints that his worlds set a chill down her back, this place seemed dead compared to her own home. It lacked the vibrancy, the throb of life that she would feel screaming across the air of her home land, of her home world. This place had a faint pulse, a whisper. This world had the pulse of a dying entity, and even as she held that hand and felt that weak whisper under the skin of sight _they_ handed her a knife and told her bring it across the wrist she cradled.

"That's all they have." Sheena whispered, staring at Corrine in horror. "That's it, everything else is dead."

"'Scuse me, is something the matter Missy?"

Sheena had wandered to the docks, not even realizing it, her muttering to herself had gathered her a few concerned glanced from the tourists about her.

"Ah… I… I'm fine thanks." She blushed, then scrambled into the tub Corrine hopping into her lap.

"They say." An elderly man who could not have been younger then seventy said conversationally as he eased himself into his 'boat'. "That those who speak aloud their innermost thoughts suffer their weight too keenly that they need an ear."

She smiled despite herself, and shrugged. "I'd really rather not talk about it."

"Aye, don't wanna tell me anyway, I'm a nosy gossiper and the misses is even worse!"

"Arold!" The elderly woman with him waggled a finger in the older man's face. "Be nice to the girl, she's by my reckon having a hard time as it is."

Sheena blushed, picked up the paddle and pushed off the dock. She'd lost her chance to do what she was supposed to do, she'd have others though. The guide clambered into his tub, rubbing his rear when he thought now one was looking, then picking up his own paddle he dipped it into the water, getting a bit of a head start.

"They say travels a little rough with only silence for company, so lets strike up some hymns to make the miles go faster!"

There was a cheer from the rest of the tourists.

In her lap Corrine cringed, his eyes begging that he be sent back _right now_!

No one was looking, it seemed safe enough, and she could always just summon him again when they got back near shore, that way no one would notice that he was gone. She let herself drift back, joined the tail and became the tail's tail of the line of boats. Someone else however was following…

"Well hello there missy, that's a mighty fine dog ya got thar!"

The cad wasn't looking at Corrine however, but her. In a way she did not like being looked at. Before Sheena could knock him into next week with the paddle Corrine nicely solved the problem for her by hopping out of her tub and into his.

And if there were a few pained screams the distance and off tune hymns that were being sung in loud voices were enough to cover it up.

Xxx

(Done spoiling you may continue!)

"Stop squirming."

"I am fine, I can walk!"

You'd think it would be Lloyd making all the fuss, but it wasn't, it was Kratos. He squirmed in Raine's grasp, and she had called on Lloyd to persuade Kratos to stay still. Lloyd had tried words, mainly please and pretty please, seeing those weren't working Lloyd had pretended to give up, subtly signaling to Raine that he wasn't done yet. He let Kratos go ahead a few feet, Riane fussing that the man was putting unnecessary pressure in his burned feet, Kratos insisting that he was fine and…

Lloyd had crouched down, winked at Genis and wiggled his butt like Noishe would when he'd pounce. Colette giggled; Genis had covered his eyes then spread the fingers to watch. Kratos had all of tens milliseconds to grow concerned before he was pounced. There'd been a struggle, Kratos had been pinned and Raine pulled off the tattered remains of the man's boots. His feet were red, a little blistered, and they were given a dose of healing mana. Then Raine had wanted to make bandages with Kratos' cape, the only thing that was covering his upper half, and Kratos had –metaphorically since he was still down as Lloyd had not gotten up from sitting on the man- dug his heals in the ground and grown even more stubborn.

"Lloyd, take it off of him."

"Don't you dare!" Kratos roared, he bucked sharply and Lloyd almost lost his seat.

"Genis, Colette, pin his arms!" Lloyd called to his friends, Kratos lifted his head and shot them such a murderous glare that the wizard and Chosen gave each other a long look.

"Un uh, you have to be insane to think I'm going to try to restrain him. He'll probably bite me or something." Genis took a few steps back.

"I'm sorry, but Mr. Kratos looks even more scary then he normally does, and I don't want him to bite me either…" Colette joined Genis in taking a few steps back.

"If you even try," Kratos rumbled, "I will break your arm in three places."

Lloyd wisely decided not to try, despite how Raine said that Kratos would not do that.

Eventually Kratos went still, glared at the air in front of him since the targets of his anger were out of reach. Genis and Colette scooted to either side of the cavern's wall to give that glare a lot of room. Raine sighed with relief, finished her healing and stood, brushing her hands off in front of her.

"Well, that is the last of that, you can get off now."

"Are you sure that's safe?" Lloyd whispered.

"If he proves to be wild I'll do the exact same thing I did to a rabbit that Colette brought in. I'll apply a heavy sedative and we'll just leave him here."

Kratos stopped cursing, went very still at that threat.

"You're a very poor patient Mr. Aurion. I've treated children of five or six who have behaved better then you. I hate to be in your company if you get a cold or the flu."

"Please professor, don' say flu…" Lloyd whined, getting up.

"Really Mr. Aurion, do you never go to the doctor? Not even when wounded?"

"I heal fine enough on my own." Kratos growled, standing he brushed off the sand on his bare chest.

"Your scars are horrible." Raine huffed. "I've never seen this many on someone before. You really should go to a surgeon about those fresh ones running down your back; at least they aren't so far healed that they can't be fixed…"

Kratos glared at her, shifted his cloak to hide the worst of his wounds.

"I am only offering a suggestion, as a healer the state of your health is of natural concern for me." Raine snapped, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "You should have some care, Goddess have mercy on you when cold weather set in and you're not in the prime of your life. What did you do to yourself?"

"I don't have to answer that." Kratos whispered.

"What happened to your chest?" Lloyd stared at the gem stone that looked like it was _embedded_ into the skin, the idea of that made Lloyd's skin crawl.

"An accident…" Kratos snarled at the stare, but softened when he recognized the look of worry Lloyd was favoring him with. "Life happens Lloyd, some feel the lash of the gods more keenly then others."

"I'm sorry…"

"Do not let it concern you." Kratos shifted his cloak so that one of the wing-like halves of it slung over his shoulder and draped over the gem, getting the hint the Iselian's stopped staring. "Shall we move on?"

Xxx

Colette skipped down the passage, Genis lifted a hand, a fireball resting in his palm he served them as a torch bearer since they could not go back yet. Colette wouldn't go back, not even for their supplies, and Kratos, practical, logical, and totally agnostic as far as Raine could tell, backed her. He must have his own reasons for not wanting to go back, but try as she might she could not get him to say why.

"We should rest here. The area's secure enough."

Genis slumped weakly against one of the large rocks with a moan, the fire going out. Raine nodded, leaned her staff agains the wall and sat on the ground. The passage was large, there were no twists or turns in the path coming of going for quite some distance. There were a handful of boulders around them, crushed up against the walls, and they served as somewhat comfortable places to rest their backs against. Raine decided to lean against one of the strangely smooth rocks, Colette banished her glowwing wings, the mist chased itself into nothingness and then the last light in the cavern went out. In the dark she could see nothing and hear everything. Genis groaned, said something about taking a quick nap, Colette shifted around, moved to lay down Raine guessed.

"There's some weird light up ahead."

"Fungus I presume." Kratos said softly, answering Lloyd's question as he answered all of the boy's questions, bluntly and with as few words as possible. "Askana servu magnific."

Lloyd laughed as that. "in here any light's gotta be special."

"Indeed, I'll take first watch, we've all had a Hell of a day."

"Mr. Kratos, don't say bad words, it's not very nice."

"I say whatever I…"

"Guys, I can't sleep with all you yapping, and I swear I'll fireball the next person who talks." Genis hissed. "My head is killing me…"

Raine who would have offered to take the pain away was chagrined to realize that after healing Kratos' feet she had no energy left.

"The grounds awful hard…" Colette sighed, rolled over by the sound of it.

"Just think you're at home in your own bed." Lloyd offered with a yawn. "Or imagine the Professor giving a lecture about history or something… Puts me to sleep… ouch! Who threw that rock!"

Raine snorted, lay her head on her crossed arms, even as Genis whined that it wasn't him.

"It was so you, it's not like Kratos or Colette or the Professor would do something like that!"

Raine closed her eyes, in the dark whipped away the tell tale sand from her hand on her sleeve.

"Children." Kratos growled, and silence fell upon the group at long last.

It was only a few moments before she was asleep, leaving the dark of the tunnel for the dark behind her eyes.

Xxx

"So, you've been giving him lessons in Angelic as well." Raine had been watching him like a… well a hawk and he was expecting some confrontation as they traveled. Genis and Colette were no longer the sources of light, as the golden green algee on the walls provided enough luminescence so see by.

"Call it what you will." Kratos shrugged, he alluded to his 'unholy' conduct to hit one of her most sensitive nerves in hopes she'd lose her temper and he'd have a justified reason to gracefully stop the conversation.

"He's been complaining about the load of work we've been giving him, and I'm starting to wonder if he might not be complaining for a very good reason."

Kratos turned to look at the woman and she seemed smug that she held his attention. But then the mention of Lloyd, the only topic he ever showed any real interest in, was guaranteed to hold him captive audience for a few minuets at least. While she dubbed Kratos' interaction with Lloyd as potentially dangerous to the man's sanity –for those who lost their children were forever on shaky grounds for the loss of a child was much the same as the loss of a main structural beam in any building- it had little harm for Lloyd. Well except the situation of Kratos being insane, that would hurt Lloyd, but it would heal swiftly. So Raine had decided to let things stand, at least until she saw proof that Kratos was losing his objectivity. When that happened the mercenary would find himself without his job.

"How would I know what you are giving him for homework, it's not as if we spend any time together, I find your lectures to be… rather boring, and you have told me much the same of mine."

"Boring!" Raine snarled, eyes blazing.

Lloyd turned, looked up from talking to Genis and stared at them both worried that he was going to have to step in and break them up again.

"Recall the conversation about criticism we had some nights ago."

Raine took a deep breath, furious that the man would have the cheek to scold her, when she felt in more control of herself Raine continued, not bothering to answer his comments.

"What I was going to ask, was, what all are you lecturing him on?"

"The subjects so far have been; ancient languages, modern grammar, ancient history, swordsmanship, the general mythos of my religion, and astronomy."

Raine blinked. "I've been lecturing him on modern history, ancient history, the general mythos of the Martel faith, modern grammar, mathematics, and natural science."

Both adults stared at the other and realized now why Lloyd was practically running away from them when they started a lecture.

"No wonder he's been begging to share watch with your brother and the Chosen." Kratos mused, running a hand through his hair.

"I hate to have to ask this… but…" Raine gritted her teeth. "Obviously he's been benefiting from your lectures, and he has been paying me more attention in mine, at least until he started to complain of being exhausted." Swallowing her pride as a teacher Raine pressed on. "We may need to discuss some sort of lesson plan, so that we aren't bogging him down with homework."

Lloyd had began to fall behind to listen to them talk, and at the words lesson plan he whimpered.

"Lloyd, go up ahead, it's a man of poor honor who eavesdrops."

Blushing, the swordsman scuffed his foot across the sandy cave floor and went back up ahead and struck up a conversation with Colette.

"When we make it out of here we'll discuss it." Raine sighed. She frowned at the walls, with their golden green algee and the sandy floors. "The geological formation of this tunnel is illogical. The sands, the growths, make little sense, such a cavern should be a rocky stone expanse, no matter it's proximity to the water geyser."

"Perhaps something tends this place." Kratos suggested, pointing to the walls with his sword. "This should have by now grown to some form of irregularity, but look around the whole of it grows exactly an inch out, there is no… break in this growth pattern."

Raine caught the children sending them veiled looks. Llyod and Genis wore looks of dread and concern and Colette giggled when she looked at them.

"We are not going over this again!" Lloyd flared after Colette whispered something and giggled. "No way, they…"

"Who are you discussing Lloyd?" Kratos asked and the younger swordsman winced.

"Errr… nothing!"

Raine decided for now to ignore the conversation between her pupils and brother, she could bring it up again latter, at a safer time. Kratos snorted, his gaze piercing but Lloyd had a defense against that. He turned his back to Kratos and the mercenary's information drawing glare could not work when it could not reach the intended victim's eyes.

"One of these days…" Kratos growled softly.

"Concerning your comment on the person who tends this place, isn't it obvious? This is a sacred place, the angels must have some hand in the irregularities that occur here."

"You sound like the Chosen."

Raine shrugged, understood what he meant, it was a mild rebuke for her faith, for her relying on faith to explain something. But when there was no scientific, or logical explanation perhaps that was the place of faith.

Xxx

"Eww…" Lloyd hopped over the smear of dull yellow in the center of the path. "You better let me help you across Colette, you wouldn't wanna trip in that." He took Colette's hands in his own and helped her across. "Genis you need a hand?"

"Nah, I got it." Wiggling his finger, feeling much better after a long nap, he wasted a little mana and enhanced his jump with a gust of wind.

"Please…" Kratos sneered at the puddle and made the jump with an absent grace that Lloyd tried not to envy.

" Professor?"

"Oh what a fascinating…"

"Never mind."

Raine cheerfully poked, prodded, and muttered a few words like fascinating when it wiggled in response to her poke.

Rolling his eyes Lloyd decided to let her play with the little yellow blob. When Genis asked what his sister was doing back a ways it was a good thing Raine never heard his "Playing with some gook, she's in you know what mode". Thy waited five minuets, Kratos finally called out that they would be leaving without her if she didn't come, in minor cases or ruin mode that would bring her back. She did not come, and Kratos tapped his foot in impatience.

"We need a leash and a muzzle for that one." He growled, looking bored.

"Kratos, shut it!" Genis snarled, or rather tried, it came out as a squeak when the mercenary favored him with the 'death glare'.

"Oh look, an artifact from the Khorloon war!" Lloyd called loudly, that should have brought Raine running.

No one came, except now Kratos was lecturing him that it was _Kharlan_ not Khorloon.

"I'm worried; I'm going to check on her." Genis said, flexing his fingers nervously to set a spell.

"Go right ahead." Kratos called, obviously not planning to come.

"You know, you can be a real jerk sometimes." Lloyd muttered. "Hey Genis, hold up I'm coming!"

"Me to!" Colette chirped, drawing her wings in excitement and fluttering after them.

Rolling his eyes Kratos waited for them to come back, he decided that he'd be such a jerk that he wouldn't come unless they screamed for him to.

"Holy cow, it's huge!"

"Eww it's icky…"

"Raine! Let her go!"

There was a blurbling war cry, and a hiss of several of something whipping through the air.

"Shards of the sun…"

"Ha! Didn't like that?"

Kratos hummed a ditty, it was that damn boat song and it was stuck in his head, no better a time to get it out of his head then now.

There was a clack of limb on wood. "Is that it?"

There was a thud, and Kratos rose an eyebrow at the sound. "Oops… oh look it had some money in it's.. eww it's all gooey and sticky!"

"Colette, get out of there!"

"Eek!"

"Fireball!"

"Genis it's of the water element, use lighting mana!" Raine called out.

Drawing a knife Kratos looked at his nails, decided that they were getting a little too long and did something about it. He filed and hummed, listening with some approvel of the large number of hisses of blade passing through flesh.

"Lighting!"

There was a loud crack, and a few moments later Raine and Colette both dripping yellow ooze came up to him. Lloyd trailed behind, not looking the least tired, his blades coated in yellow goop. Genis grumbling was picking the filth out of his hair. Kratos looked up, assumed an annoyed expression.

"Ah there you are, I find it hard to imagine that you got _lost _in a one way cavern."

They all glared at him, flat unfriendly glares, all of them except Lloyd. He was a little surprised. He had imagined that the Chosen was incapable of glaring.

"Kratos, just shut up!" The elf sibs yelled at him as one.

"What's there problem?" Lloyd asked, a wide grin on his face.

"No idea." Kratos sheathed his knife.

"Man you should have seen it, that dinky thing that Raine was poking turned into this huge blob and it was trying to eat her. Of course it didn't, I mean a blob since it doesn't have a mouth it can't eat anything, so it was kind of hugging Raine and…"

Kratos allowed Lloyd' enthusiastic narrative roll over him, and only cut him off once.

"She fell and money just fell out of the thing?"

"Un huh, weird huh?"

"She stole, can a Chosen steel?"

"I didn't steal, I fell and the money just popped out!"

Kratos and Lloyd shared a knowing look, both having an the exact same amused cynical smile on their lips.

"Wow, when you both smile like that you look exactly like each other!" Colette chirped, her anger forgotten it seemed.

"Eww! Don't talk like that… It brings all of Izoold back!" Lloyd shuttered.

"Does it really bother you that much?" Kratos muttered, falling in step with the young man, letting Raine in her wild Ruin Mode take the point yet again and putting as much distance as was safe between himself and her. Lloyd wisely followed his example, unlike Colette who wanted to share Raine's happiness and Genis who could not work his hand free from his sister's grasp.

"Not as much as it used to. It would be beyond weird if you were my Dad, it'd be crazy."

"But not as unattractive as before…"

"Well I like you, I mean, you are a jerk sometimes… No offense or anything…" Kratos felt a thrill run down his spine, he could not be offended by anything at the moment, he somehow managed a shrug and Lloyd went on. "but it's not totally disgusting as it was before. I guess… despite being weirder then heck… it'd be kinda cool. But…" Lloyd looked downcast. "Your family is dead so… I guess it's not real huh?"

"Even if it not a physical reality, the sentiment is appreciated."

"Huh?"

"I'll explain it later."

"Unless…" Lloyd struck his thinking pose. The young man set the index finger to tapping tapped against his own temple, a smug smile curled his lips. "You have one of those… what are they called… old people get them… oh yeah, memory blank! If you have one of tho-"

Kratos mock punched Lloyd's shoulder and the boy staggered from the hit right into him taking Kratos down with him.

"Hey Kratos, you dropped this didn't you?" Lloyd held a pouch that had fallen from Kratos belt.

"Give that back." Kratos snarled, hopping to his feet.

"You and what army?" Lloyd smirked, tossing the gald pouch from hand to hand. "After all you just _dropped_ this and I just _happened_ to pick it up… so isn't it mine?"

"Only if you want to die." Kratos mock growled, recognizing the glimmer in Lloyd's eyes as all this in being a good humored prank.

"You have to catch me first, and old man you are, I bet… oh shit!"

Lloyd ran for his life Kratos only a step or two behind him.

Xxx

"Ohh look at the grace of this pillar, marvelous, you see the indents here, they're to capture the water from this ruins natural subterranean geysers who's vapors heat the geyser above that most think of as the only… oh this is so exciting, no one knows about these hidden geysers and…"

Colette was a pool of pure glee at Raine's feet, absorbing every word of the lecture. Genis was, for once, bored out of his skull. They'd gone ahead, went down winding stairs, and the one monster –a bipedal starfish- had taken one look at the enthused Raine and had whimpered and ran off. Genis took back his opinion that all monsters were dumb, kind of wished he could have joined it. But the crack in the wall was too small for even him to slide under. Riane raced down the winding stairs, monsters fleeing before them, Colette skipping besides them both, having spotted a structure below the seething pits of water faded into non-existence and she had them at the base of a massive pillar and was now going on a random rant about this being a temple.

She hadn't even stopped when Genis had pointed out that Lloyd and Kratos weren't with them anymore, and Colette didn't seem to have heard.

Then, speak of the swordsmen, there they were. Laughing Lloyd was running from an annoyed looking Kratos, a pouch in hand. They hit the final turn that was so tight that Raine had almost toppled into the water when she was racing down the stairs… Lloyd leading kicked off a large boulder, spun in the air and landed a good ways down the final slope. He tumbled a bit, got up, and was up and again running. The mercenary made the turn, skidded to a stop so not to fall into the pool of boiling water, then looked down to see Lloyd was getting away. Kratos then jumped along the side of the edge, cloak flaring behind him like a pair of black wings he landed less then ten feet away from them. Colette lost in the lecture, Raine lost in giving the lecture, didn't even _see_ it. No one should of made that landing, but then he'd watch Lloyd make a similar fall in Iselia before they were exiled…

Lloyd turned, saw the mercenary had jumped and paled when the man cricked his knuckles.

"Heh heh…"

Lloyd looked around, saw another part of the ruin that Raine had already ranted over, saw the pillars and an escape. Lloyd ran to the white pillar, kicked off his boots, and scrambled up the pillar. The iIelian swordsman used the water drop catchers as finger and toe holds. It seemed to have worked, Kratos paused at the base, prowled around it like some demented panther with it's pray out of reach...

Now this was interesting! He turned away from Raine so he could better watch.

Kratos kicked off his boots, then began to climb up, if nothing else he was faster then Lloyd was!

"No fair, adults can't climb trees!"

"This isn't a tree boy, and I am quite capable of climbing a tree."

Lloyd then looked around, there were a series of pillars, all of them less then ten feet away from each other.

Genis covered his eyes, knowing that look on Lloyd's face, then spread his fingers so he could watch this turn as ugly as he knew it would.

Lloyd jumped from the pillar he was on, kicked off of it to the other, and after a long heart stopping slide managed to get a hand hold.

"No way are you catching me!" Lloyd chirped, and then began to climb up the second pillar.

Kratos growled, then did the exact same thing… well he didn't get a hand hold and he smashed into the pillar with heart stopping thud. Genis laughed at the man as he fell, it wasn't much of a fall, he'd been a lot lower then Lloyd was and the jump killed a lot of height. Kratos snarled, whipped his face and prowled the base of the second, Lloyd raining down taunts. Kratos clambered up yet again and Raine finally saw that Genis was not paying attention. She followed his gaze, went bloodless white then went scarlet. Lloyd started his jump to get to the third pillar and Kratos was prepped to try another jump as well.

"Lloyd Irving!"

Raine's scream was so furous the target of the yell missed his landing and smashed into the pillar, he landed on the ground with a moan and rubbed head.

"Oww… Oh hi Profess… errr I…"

Raine was coming for him, staff raised in fury.

"Sweat Luna!" Lloyd paled, then scrambled up the pillar.

"Lloyd Irving you get down and stop hurting that innocent ruin right NOW!"

"Be logical Ms. Sage, a ruin is an inanimate…"

"Logical! LOGICAL! And what are you being? Both of you get down here NOW!"

Lloyd and Kratos shared a long look.

"Ms. Sage, I plan on living to see tomorrow, so I will decline and remain up here until some of your anger fades."

"Lloyd!"

"It's kinda nice here, safe, so I'm gunna stay up here…"

"This is a relic from ages past not some… gymnasium! I can not believe one of my own students would…"

Raine went on… and on… and eventually Lloyd's glazed eyes slid shut. With a mumble he fell asleep, hands and feet still caught in their respective holds so he did not fall. Raine hardly noticed, until at the end of her lecture she screamed "WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELVES!"

Lloyd's only answer was a quiet mumble, Kratos looked to Lloyd a small smile on his face.

"I would say Ms. Sage, you are correct, Lloyd is capable of sleeping anywhere through anything."

Raine's jaw sagged open, she looked torn, torn between curiosity and outrage. Curiosity won out however, her voice was probably aching from her last speech anyways.

"Impossible he can't be…"

"Oh I know how to check!" Colette chirped. "Lloyd, class is over!"

"Huh.. what…" Lloyd yawned. "What's I… Ahhh!"

He lost his grip. Kratos loosed a hand, drew his sword and threw it after Lloyd. It went into the stone with a loud crunch and Lloyd's hand shot up and snatched the hilt. Genis winced as Lloyd bobbed up and down like a cat's toy, the sword sawing back and forth under the force of absorbing Lloyd's weight.

"Th.. thanks Kratos…" Lloyd squeaked.

"Not a problem, watch yourself better next time."

Raine was trembling, torn between concern for her pupil and outrage for the damage now wrecked on the ruin she turned to Kratos.

Rage won out.

"Do you know what you just damaged…" Raine shrieked.

Lloyd just quietly got to the pillar, worked the sword out, and weaving it through his twin belts climbed down.

Genis sat back, happy that Lloyd was alright he waited in evil anticipation for Kratos to fall asleep and fall.

Xxx

"Leash, must buy a leash…" Kratos muttered as they walked down a path with water lapping along either side of it. It was made of stone, Raine tried to study it, and Kratos and the rest of the group allowed her to do so, stepping over her or around her and going ahead.

After waiting out three other acute fits of Ruin Mode no one, not even Colette, was waiting for her anymore. They only went back when Raine fell silent, because that meant that some aquatic monster had come out of the depths and seeking peace and quiet went to dispose of the endless shrill babble.

"A gag." Genis moaned. "Or better yet, earmuffs!"

"Brilliant, would you like me to worship the ground you walk on now or…" Kratos muttered, trying to bring his collar up to muffle the sound of the babble.

"If you magic up me a set of earmuffs I'll do it." Lloyd whined, rubbing his head.

"I'll pay you." The mercenary added.

"What's wrong everyone?" Colette chirped, "I like this place it's really nice. Look there's another smiley fish!"

Genis bent down over the edge of the walk way, muttered a few words, put a hand to the water, and with a hiss electricity running across water and the smiley fish –AKA a shark- rolled over belly up and drifted down on the tide.

"This is so easy it's getting…" Genis began

"Boring?" Kratos added, he winced as Lloyd aimed the sorcerer's ring at him and doused him with water for the tenth time.

"Hmmm that'd be bad if I got bored before Lloyd huh?"

"Very," Kratos wrung out his cloak, "bad form if nothing else."

"Hardy har har… for that!" Lloyd doused Kratos on the back of the head.

"You douse me one more time boy and you'll swim instead of walk."

"You'd throw me to the sharks?"

"Yes, I will."

Lloyd considered it, then gave Colette the ring so he wouldn't be tempted.

"Oh wow this is fun!" Colette summoned a stream of water and Lloyd was doused.

"Well at least it isn't…" Kratos was doused. "must not kill client… must not throw her to sharks… unprofessional…." He muttered under his breath, and winced as he was hit yet again.

"Colette, stop it, it's cold!" Gneis whined, hopping as he was hit.

"OK, here Mr. Kratos, you can have a turn now!"

"Why thank you Chosen." Kratos put on the ring and smirked at Lloyd. "come along boy, you've always wanted to take point, here's your chance."

"Are you crazy! No way!"

"As you will." Kratos lined the ring with Lloyd's face and the swordsman dripped for quite a while.

Xxx

The filled the vase with the ring, a boring exercise that drained Lloyd's love of the new ring power down to nothing by the time the were done. There was a riddle, Genis solved it, and they were headed back, a glowing light from the higher levels telling them the door was opened. Raine ran up to them, eyes shinning with ruin mode glee.

"Where were you? I was concerned."

"Just out of morbid curiosity, do you even know our names right now?" Kratos muttered, Lloyd snickered and Genis chuckled.

"Oh, where were you Professor? You missed a riddle and an artifact and…"

"Artifact, where?"

"Back there?" Colette pointed to the path they went down with a shrug.

"There's no where else to go." Genis pointed out.

"There's a lot of places to go if you don't follow the road!" Colette explained.

Raine zipped by them, oblivious of the water to see a new artifact.

"you know… can she control it?"

"Pradon?"

"Raine, her ruin nuttiness? Do you think she can control it?"

"Ah. A psychological defense against her phobia, after today I'd say… yes."

"What?"

"Shorter words Kratos." Genis sighed. "Never mind Lloyd, it's not important."

"Oh, OK, hey I'm hungry."

"Me too." Colette blushed as her stomach rumbled.

"Wasn't there a pool that wasn't boiling in the cave room before the temple halls?" Genis wondered.

"Yes," Kratos sighed. "I'll catch some fish and we can use some of the hot pools to cook with."

"Fish sounds yummy!" Colette chirped.

"Provided I catch any."

"Don't worry." Genis' hands crackled with electricity. "I can shock them and you can pick them out."

"That'll kill everything in the area." Kratos pointed out.

"I _can_ control it, even if the water fans it out a little as long as I see a fish I can stun it." Genis sniffed sounding offended. "I am after all Iselia's best wizard."

"You're Iselia's only wizard aren't you?"

"Colette…" Genis sighed. "Not again…"

"She's got a point you know, so maybe you aren't the most powerful wizard after all." Lloyd smirked. "Heck I bet Kratos is just as good."

"Take that back!"

"Take what back I was just spec- spok… Hey ouch!" Lloyd rubbed his head, he'd leaned down to tease Genis and the elf had reached up and shocked his head. His hair was even more spiky.

"Genis!" He whined, reached up and winced as sparks snapped at his fingers. "You I'll…"

"Maybe _that_ woke your brain up!" Genis laughed.

"I'm not stupid!"

"Lloyd you can't even say speculate!" Genis stuck his tongue out. "So how's that proof that you aren't dumb?"

"You… you're such a brat you know that!"

"Me?"

"Ha take this!" Lloyd used the ring on Genis' face.

Sputtering Genis whipped his face, then lifted a hand, he held a mini-fireball.

"Ack!" Lloyd ducked the first and cast Guardian to reflect the second. He managed a few counters with his ring and the fight and flight was on.

Kratos crossed his arms in front of his chest and sighed as another cry of marvelous rang out behind him.

Craziness behind craziness in front, well at least his client was showing some sense for once…

"Come on Mr. Kratos, they're getting away." She was hovering in place, having drawn her wings in her happiness.

Two roads that went the exact same way, he cracked a slight smile.

"Alright," he shifted his sword. "Let us go."


	19. The REAL chapter 19

_To my readers,_

_Drawing from outlines and my sketchy memory here is the real chapter 19. I improvised on the monsters somewhat as I can't find a decent picture for them on the 'net, so if anything is glaringly wrong e-mail or review me and I will fix it. Thanks for all the helped and thanks for all the patience guys. _

_Side note I wrote this to the FF7: Advant Children soundtrack (I ordered it before the comp died, a friend played a piece called one winged angel and I turned instant fan-girl if you believe her story), I saw the previews for it via the internet and will defiantly be buying/seeing it even though I have yet to buy a PS or play a final fantasy besides the SNES ones and Crystal Chronicles. It just looks so amazing I have to see it! OK done with random rant to important stuff. _

_Some silliness before the seal, there's some rare Kratos Lloyd playfulness and knowing those two playing equals swords. Raine's still as crazy as ever. Some play, a serious chat about religion, oh and SEAFOOD(I was hungry when I started writing OK me plus hungry plus writing equals a bad combo)! I know Colette's supposed to get Holy Song after the fight but to help the story along I gave it to her during. I made a unique spin on the monster and I added a little here a little there. I love sword fights way too much, no spoilers, some implied but nothing that someone who isn't a fan-girl like me would catch. I hope this chapter is good and worth the wait I put you guys through. There's gunna be another wait as I need to finish the final draft of a short story for a writing class and I need to totally re-write the sucker. So I'm gunna be doing original fiction for a few days before I can work on some fan stuff. Hopefully I'll have some stuff come the weekend, I'll see if I can nag a friend into letting me use her comp._

_Kasan Soulblade_

Chapter 19

Untitled (will take suggestions)

Kratos watched as his sword slid into the scalding mess of writhing white water. He glared at the steam that made his eyes ache and his face feel tight, but he dared not turn away. For once he wore no shield, no armor, save leather gloves that shielded his all too vulnerable hands. He patiently waited on the banks of the steaming pool of water, holding the hilt in his steady hands while their meal cooked. Lloyd had sacrificed a belt for this endeavor, the last length of leather made several laps around the steel to hold their meal of fish in place, served as a kind of bump to keep the food from slipping off and becoming lost, it had earlier bound sword to shield so that they could cook the clams in a make shift pot. As their half of a fish cooked Kratos watched the meat turn from a pale red to a flaky red. The food might have just cooked had they held the sword over the tangled white vines of steam, but he wasn't going to risk his health or Lloyd's in a case of half cooked fish. Freeing a hand he pulled a water slicked wad of auburn hair from his eyes, and to all he looked ignorant of the heat, but was for once he was suffering due to the temperatures intensity, or rather the form that its intensity was taking. He was soaked with his own sweat, and not only was that making seeing difficult as water spray fell onto his body and left stinging lines down his visage it tangled his hair and made it all the more likely to obscure his vision.

Chattering merrily about ruins and history, oblivious to his pain, Raine, Genis, and Colette, were seated around Kratos' shield turned pot. Well it had been a pot, was now a plate after the food hand been fished out and it was turned over to the flat expanse was now facing up rather then the bowl like intended section. Regardless they were helping themselves to a dinner of fish, clams and lobster. Lloyd had slipped away from Kratos to save a few pieces of the lobster and clams for them; or rather he had once Kratos had ordered him to.

"The red thing looks like a bug." Lloyd grumbled. "And these look like snails."

"You'll like them, trust me, how's the table coming?"

"It's set."

The table was as make shift as the pot had been. Having not wood of course they made use of two of Lloyd's swords. They were dipped in the scalding hot waters to make sure of being clean, held in the fiery hot waters until Kratos was sure that every speck of filth had been washed away then left upon the shore while Lloyd went to look for four large rocks. No luck in that, there were scarce few loose stones, but Lloyd had found a substitute, had pulled out a few broken bricks from a ruined wall and had brought them back. It was a good idea and might have worked, except for Raine's mania. She had spotted Lloyd carrying bricks and seeing they were from some of the structures downstairs had descended on him like the wraith of the Gods. Kratos frowned at the fish, though it was more at the memory of Lloyd crying out in pain as he had been spanked.

The food was done, complete; nodding Kratos joined the red clad swordsman who was laying out the mess of clams and the pieces of tender lobster limbs on the twin blades. Twin slender rapiers lay side by side, providing the thinnest and lowest of tables imaginable. The tip of each blade and end of hilt rested on small rocks, offering some height, but it was by far the lowest table either of them had sat at. Kratos sat cross legged on one side, and Lloyd hesitantly joined him, setting his sore rump on the hard stones with only a slight hiss.

"Thanks, I don't know how you handled that, all the steam and stuff was making me light headed."

"You just pull a trick on yourself." Kratos reached for a clam, then pulled a knife from his belt and tried to pry it open. "You concentrate on something and the dizziness recedes."

"And if it doesn't?" Lloyd frowned. "What are you doing?"

"I am looking for a rock." Kratos growled, he offered the shell his best death glare, but the small animal inside was already dead so that wasn't helping. Much to the mercenary's chagrin he could not force the blasted thing open. "And if it doesn't you get away from the scalding hot water as fast as you can."

"Oh, hey can I try somethin'?"

"With what? Oh, the shell, be my guest but it's imposs-"

Lloyd dragged the stubborn specimen of sea food along the edge of his blade. The boy sheared through the thin span that served as a hinge for the shell, than with a grin he cracked it open and offered it to the older man.

"I retract that statement."

"Re-track-et?"

"Take back." Kratos noisily slurped up the contents of the shell and Lloyd made a gagging noise.

"Oh yuck, Kraaatos!" Genis wailed from a few feet away. "That's nasty!"

"Ewww…" Colette made a disgusted noise. "That doesn't look very good Mr. Kratos."

"Be polite children." Raine scolded, though she seemed a little put off by how the mercenary just calmly ate the clam whole. "We must respect other people's ways, even if it's in something as simple as how they eat."

Ignoring them the mercenary quietly chewed his meal; Lloyd rolled a clam over in his hands, then set it back on the blade table. He happily dug into the neglected fish, picked out the bones and cut away half with his dagger. Kratos just picked off the clams one by one till only one was left.

"Trying something new wouldn't kill you." Kratos scolded Lloyd, handing him the final clam.

"Don't do it Lloyd!" Genis gasped. "Don't eat a slimeball in a shell."

Kratos spared the small elf with his most vicious gaze and the silver haired boy cringed back from those cold brown eyes.

Shrugging Lloyd dragged the shell across his blade, hearing the soft crack of the hard cover give way the young swordsman pried open the thing and looked at the blob inside. He shook the shell and the thing inside jiggled.

"Do they always look like that?"

Kratos gave the thing in the shell a long look than nodded.

"And it's dead right?"

"Yes." Kratos' eyes flickered with some secret emotion that the younger swordsman couldn't read. Lloyd had the feeling the man was enjoying his discomfort somewhat.

"And it's not poisonous?"

"I am still here am I not?"

"What's it taste like?"

"Eat one to find out." Kratos said, "Or don't and give it to me and finish off the fish."

"You're a load of comfort." Genis chirped. "If you told me that I'd never eat it."

"It does look icky." Colette agreed.

Closing his eyes, trying not to imagine what it looked like Lloyd poured the limp thing into his mouth. It felt nasty. The shell fish was all sticky and gummy. It clung to his teeth and was like eating a bit of mush. But for mush it wasn't half bad.

"Eh, so-so." He said to Kratos' interested expression. "Not bad but not so good either."

"It's an acquired taste."

"Ack-wire-ud?"

Kratos rose an eyebrow, and Lloyd just looked up at the man in genuine confusion.

"How long has Lloyd been your pupil Ms. Sage?"

"A long long time…" Raine sighed, running a hand through her wild silver locks. "Lloyd, acquired means to pick up, to get."

"Picked up taste?" Lloyd stared at Kratos, even more confused.

"It's not something you get right away; it takes time to grow into liking it." Genis explained.

"I got it." Lloyd said and everyone sighed in relief. "But I don't got it."

"Why…" Raine massaged her temples. "Why sweet Martel, why?"

Lloyd shrugged and bit on the lobster leg, spitting out the shell with a disgusted look then picking out the meat. Behind him Raine was whispering more pleas to Martel to explain Lloyd's "thickness". Colette looked on confused and Genis quietly joined his sister in her prayers for an answer and some hints of enlightenment on Lloyd's part.

Kratos watched it all with a mix of disgust, amusement, and confusion on his face.

"Lloyd… does this not bother you?"

"Huh, oh," he looked at the Sage sibs and shrugged. "They do that all the time. Dad just said to tone them out when they do that. It's an elf thing."

Lloyd took another bite of food, back to being oblivious to the world around him and Kratos felt a bit of a headache coming on.

X

"I will take first watch." Kratos announced, his dark eyes scanning the almost equally dark cave. Patches of golden-green luminance from the fungi on the caverns ceiling and the side of the stairway were filtered through a mess of steam and spray. The tides lapped at one half of the room, the pools of scalding water boiled on the other. All the water above them, the mist and spray was gold, made for a gold tinted mist; there was no night, no day in the dark and the gold world they had invaded. But heavy eyelids and gapping mouths were common enough signs for them all to read.

"You always take first watch." Raine muttered sleepily, Genis was curled against her while she sat up, even as she spoke and yawned she stroked her brother's silver colored hair. "Are you up to it?"

"I'm more suited to living on my physical edge." Kratos explained calmly. "It's not like you care for my health anyways. I render you a service, protect those you care for, and when I grow faulty in that service it is in your power to dismiss me. That's all it is, so don't play niceties Ms. Sage and make it what it isn't."

"It's just a job?" Raine repeated Kratos' words to him and the mercenary smiled slightly.

"That's all it is."

Colette lay as close to her mentor as she could, was curled up into a small little ball as close to Raine as she could be and not intrude on the brother and sister elves closeness. Lloyd lay between them all, between the Raine's half of their sleeping space and the Kratos' half. Lloyd was facing Kratos, the boy looked like a red worm wrapped up in those crimson sleeping blankets. After being nagged and bothered about it for a good hour after the dinner Kratos had gone back to get their supplies, or rather had gone back for their blankets and a few odd and end jells and bandages.

"I think when you stop lying to yourself you might become a decent human being Mr. Aurion." Raine said, laying down and giving into the coaxing of her exhaustion and full belly.

He would have pushed the matter, made her clarify her meaning, but decided against it. Raine had fallen asleep the second her head hit the pillow of her crossed arms. There was little satisfaction in watching others sleep, little satisfaction in watching for monsters who would not come, yet there was little in life pleasant or satisfying. He leaned against on of the pillars and stared into the golden stained mists, and noted with a grim twist of his lips how swift the gold was obscured by the thick shadows that crouched amongst the corners and made a canvas above them that the cloaked stone sky.

_X_

Lloyd yawned, opened his eyes and stretched. The blankets about him bunched then went slack, kind of like a half hearted squirm from a caterpillar. He was oblivious to the effect, or maybe he wasn't. As if sensing Kratos' eyes upon him he squirmed, keeping the blankets wrapped about him, closer to the others. Letting his eyes slide open Kratos knew that his regard, his gaze, was intense enough to convey worlds of meaning to the young man. Lloyd froze, a few inches from Raine.

"What are you doing?" He whispered.

Lloyd looked to him his eyes far too wide, too innocent.

"Do you want to die? That's what'll happen if you wake her up, she will kill you in a slow painful fashion."

Lloyd considered it, mulled over it that took a bit of time. He eventually squirmed back to the general location of where he had started out and went still. Kratos watched the antics not quite understanding all that had occurred. But the playfulness was somewhat contagious.

"I have this string urge to put a hook in your jaw and just throw you into the water." Kratos murmured, staring at the young man with unblinking intense scrutiny.

Lloyd met his gaze and glared.

"I just can't understand where the urge is coming from." Kratos mused, staring at Lloyd, telling his lips to twitch some other time. "I just see this side of fish, lightly buttered with a dab of tarter…"

"Get away from me!" Lloyd hissed, scrunching back a bit from his mess of blankets he looked like a caterpillar ready to run.

Kratos lazily walked towards Lloyd, who was now looking from side to side panic building in his eyes.

"Hey, no!" Lloyd gasped, trying to now fight free from the tangle of fabric so he could run. "Don't!"

Lloyd was, much to his horror, snagged by his middle, his limbs pinned, and he was dragged blanket and all to the very cold pool of sea water. The tide was high, the pool almost filled to brimming, it would safe enough for a dunking, but it would be cold, freezing even. He tried to fight, but untrained, uncoordinated, he would not be getting free anytime soon. With an evil grin Kratos dragged him to the water, then cruelly tossed him blanket and all into the pool. The splash was spectacular by all means, and Lloyd sputtered, thrashed, and then dragged himself to the bank with little problems.

Sopping wet, blanket clinging to him like a red cloak, Lloyd glared at him and yet despite the glare through chattering teeth he broke into a huge smile.

"You've just declared war old man."

"Old man?" Kratos raised an eyebrow at the boys daring. "I hardly see you in any state to…"

Kratos was Noishe-tackled, and found himself in the water. While the cold hardly bothered him he had to fight a great deal with his cape to get out of the water. Panting out a string of curses the older swordsman managed to get to the sandy bank, pulled the hair out of his eyes and favored Lloyd with a vicious glare.

"You are going to be a corpse in five seconds." Kratos hissed, his blade joined in that hiss as he pulled the water slicked weapon from its sheath.

"You and what army Kratos?" Lloyd grinned, spared a glance for his swords that were nearby, if he ran…

Seeing the glance Kratos smirked, silver light flickered along the edge of his blade and Lloyd's swords were sent flying when Kratos let the power trapped in his sword roll across the ground and smash into Lloyd's sheathed swords. Hopping like offended creatures the weapons flew; they arched over the sleeping members of their party and clattered down the stone steps that lead to the pathway where the solver riddle lay. Seeing Kratos advance Lloyd cursed and made a wild run across the room to the stairs leading down. Lloyd jumped over Raine, who even in her sleep was seemingly a lone guard over the entrance of the inner labyrinth of the water temple.

Luckily for them all Raine slept right on through being treated as a hurdle, snorting at the boy's rashness Kratos quietly slipped past his sleeping companions, stepped over Raine, and went down into the inner recesses of the temple. Lloyd had abandoned the stair way, or rather had dashed down to the first landing and looked up at him expectantly. Spotting him Lloyd mouthed something uncomplimentary about Kratos' hair and made a comparison to a rat's nest, Kratos decided to rebuttal with a wave of silver power from his blade.

Nothing like a lively debate to start the morning, Lloyd dodged the attack, delivered a decent counter and when Kratos dodged that and it smashed into the wall behind making a number of the mosaic tiles break with a loud crack both swordsmen flinched. Kratos looked to the still sleeping Raine, she was going to kill them for this, it would be a slow painful death for them both for breaking relics of ages past. But then what of it, they had the pillars as a sanctuary if Raine proved to be too violent. Smirking the black caped mercenary slicked back his hair so it wouldn't get into his face and Lloyd seeing the advance turned tail and bolted knowing that he was beyond dead if he was caught.

X

Blade smashed against blade. Lloyd blocked the slash and the older man's sword stroke licked against the flats of his twin swords. Giving Kratos room he backed off; let the man pull off a counter slash that cut through little more then air but put the sword in perfect position for a thrust. Lloyd stepped back at a fast clip, never turning from the mercenary he swung his blades in as one great motion, held them so close the hilts nearly touched and entangled their weapons together. He wrenched his arms to the side in one sharp move, tried to wrench the man's weapon from his grasp. Lloyd was strong enough, barely, to make the move jerk Kratos' arm out of ideal attack position. Kratos went with the jerk, staggered, but still retained his grip on his weapon. The older man turned the forced step into a nasty opportunity. The stagger was totally fake, sword tangled; the mercenary abandoned that mode of attack and went to another. Lloyd ripped his blades free of the tangle; he'd compromised his footing with the move and crossed his blades defensively in front of him by reflex. Good thing he did, Kratos smashed his shield into the spot where both blades met, had the Iselian not done so he'd have been taken down with a punch that had Kratos' shield leading, but Lloyd blocked him. Pleased, because that was so like the move that Lych had disarmed him with last time, Lloyd felt his confidence sore. As if seeing that hint of arrogance and not approving Kratos smashed his shield against Lloyd's guard again and the younger swordsman felt his feet start to slide. He tried to lock his legs, tried to take the hit, and felt his equilibrium start to go due to the attack and the water slicked stone under his feet. Cursing Lloyd hopped to the side, abandoned his crossed blade guard and tried to dodge. Kratos spun on his heel and delivered a sharp kick to Lloyd's stomach sending the young swordsman off the small walkway and into the water with a startled cry. After a moment Lloyd's head emerged from the water.

"Co-cold…" Lloyd shivered, "Th-thanks a-l-l-lot Kratos I dropped my other sword! Hold this!" Lloyd tossed his remaining sword to the startled mercenary then went under before the older man could remind the younger of the sharks that habited the waters.

There was a long ominous span where Lloyd did not resurface. Worried Kratos went to the part of the path where Lloyd had gone down; he knelt by the very edge. So worried was the mercenary that he didn't see two red gloved hands grip the opposite edge, did not hear the young man pull himself. To give the man some credit Kratos _did_ feel the foot smash into his butt and send him and did realize he'd been had when he hit the waters. Smirking Lloyd picked up the blade Kratos had left on the path and lifted the one he'd retrieved.

"Arches," Lloyd grinned at the startled man. "It's an arch underneath."

"The _second_ I get on land…" Kratos rumbled.

"Is that a shark!" Lloyd gasped in mock horror, Kratos snarled and began to make his way back to the path, Lloyd decided to go up and see if there were any other places less slippery to fight.

X

"Morning Lloy-" Colette stopped breathing when her friend came running from the inner temple, the Hall of Liquid Radiance where the earthen vessel had been filled with holy water from the sorcerers ring. He was drenched, like he'd been swimming. With a loud whoop he jumped over the sleeping Raine, looked around the room then went up the stairs to the path that would lead out of the temple.

Behind him like an afterthought trailed the words.

"Hi Colette! Bye Colette!"

If Lloyd's sudden appearance surprised her the sopping wet Kratos behind him made her squeak in total shock. Sword drawn, eyes blazing like a fiends, the mercenary came from the chamber, stepped over Raine, and glared up the path they had traveled the day before.

"Good morning Kratos!" Colette chirped.

He didn't respond, spotting Lloyd making a break for the exit Kratos growled and stormed after red clad swordsman.

"Have fun!"

She called after them; since she was up she decided that now would be a good time to pray to Martel and humming a happy ditty fished through her blanket until she found a holy book. Figuring Kratos and Lloyd were going to be running up and down the stairs a lot Colette went to the pillars by a pile of really glowy mold and flipped through the book till she found the right prayers for the morning. Since she was supposed to face the sun but there was no sun she decided that that pile of exceptionally light shedding mold would just have to serve and she quietly began to sing the prayer of the morning.

_Goddess Martel thank you_

_We raise out voices in thanks_

_That we have seen such a glorious dawn_

"I'm going to kill you Lloyd Irving!" Kratos roared.

"What, the water cold Kratos? Poor Kratos-watos, the water was cold wasn't it? Well that's what you get for dunking me you…"

Colette firmly toned out some of the bad words Lloyd said, and went on with the next refrain.

_Your Light banishes the darkness_

_On Sylvarant and on soul_

_Light sweeps away the sins_

_And makes us purer vessels for your glory_

"Tell me how the Underworld is when you get there!" Kratos snarled

There was a clang of sword on sword, she spotted Lloyd running back down the stairs, he was coming this way. He darted past the pillars, as he went by Colette called out to him.

"Hi again Lloyd!"

"Hey Colette!"

Down he went back into the chamber, hopping over Professor Sage as he went.

"I'm going to kill that little runt!" Kratos snarled, storming down the stairs and saying a few not so nice words as he passed her.

"Hi again Kratos."

He didn't even look up to acknowledge her words.

She frowned at that, he wasn't being very nice… then her frown deepened as she realized something horrible.

"Uh oh… what line was I on?" She scanned the book but had what Genis would have called a Lloyd lapse, she couldn't recall what line she'd been on. "Opps… I'm so sorry Martel, I didn't mean to forget what line I was on… oh dear I'll have to start from the beginning…"

X

"Kratos watos?" The mercenary sputtered, swung his sword and Lloyd ducked behind the over hang left by the first set of stairs. The water temple was weird, really weird. There were a ton of steps going down, a few landings and turns, then this huge cavern opened up and you had a really long platform of marble. When you ran across it you found another flight of stairs heading down, and when you went down those stairs your found yet another long span of marble that was like a hall with no walls. Except there was one wall, where the first platform went down it turned from solid stone to an arch, it was like there was a holy wall room thing that you could dive into if you felt comfortable with the idea of having a marble roof over your head. Lloyd ducked under the marble over hang left by the previous platforms because Kratos could not swing his sword in that tight space.

Not that it stopped Kratos from thrusting with his blade, but Lloyd moved fast enough to avoid that.

"Kratos _watos_!" The mercenary was going red in fury.

"Ever hear of baby talk?" Lloyd panted.

They'd run up and down the temple once and the way it was looking it was going to be lap two. Darting out from the over hand, squirming between two tight pillars Lloyd popped out a bit ahead of the man. Grunting Kratos fought his way free from the mess of pillars and Lloyd was already going up the stairs again.

"You can't keep this up forever." Kratos hissed, eyes promising a few painful thwacks of the flat of the blade when he caught up to the younger man.

"I can try!" Lloyd chirped.

They both saved their breath for running, and fighting, as that's where they needed it most.

X

"Hey Colette!" Lloyd skidded to a stop, fished out his water pouch from his rest spot last night and took a long draw. "How were morning prayers?"

"Really good, thanks for asking!"

"L-Lloyd?" Genis was just waking up, he stared at his dripping wet friend; half of it now was sweat as he hadn't been dunked in a while. "What's going on?"

"Oh Kratos and Lloyd are playing tag!" Colette explained.

"With their swords out?" Genis sputtered, rubbing his eyes than pinching himself to see that this was a dream.

"Un huh!"

"Yep, she's got it… Uh oh… Kratos is coming, see you guys in a bit!" Putting the cap back on his water skin Lloyd tossed it onto his sopping wet blankets and then ran back up the path that led out.

Genis felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his head.

"Colette how long has this been going on?"

"Hmmm about half an hour, why?"

"Tag with their swords drawn?"

"Yep." Colette smiled. "Why, what's wrong with that?"

Kratos stepped over the sleeping form of Raine, eyes blazing he picked Lloyd out with his eyes, his whole posture screaming that Lloyd was going to meet a painful death. Genis shrank back against his blankets as Kratos stormed past.

"Tag?"

"Yes, I said tag. What's wrong Genis, are you feeling OK?"

"I don't know. Hey, are you done with prayers, well if not could I join you…" Genis stared at the black capped swordsman who was snarling a few words in that weird language of his at Lloyd's retreating back. "I think I'd like to pray for a large dose of calm and stability right now."

"OK!" Colette fished out a tattered looking book with half faded print on the spine. "Here we go!"

_Martel, Goddess grant me thy serenity_

"It's the end of the world for you Lloyd."

There was a clatter of blade striking blade.

"Oh come on, you're having fun!" Lloyd crowed, "This is fun."

"It is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

_Let your stillness and peace be as my own_

_May it flow from me to the world…_

"If you aren't having fun then why are you acting like a kid?" Lloyd countered.

"Swing your blade as fast as you wag your tongue and you might develop some decent swordsmanship skills."

There was a ring of blade striking blade, a loud thud and Genis gasped in shock when he saw from all the way at the top of the stairs Lloyd tackled Kratos and they both tumbled down for a bit. Somewhere in the tumble Kratos lost his sword, Lloyd picked himself up and dashed down the stairs, a wide grin on his face while Kratos had to go up to hunt for his weapon.

"Who needs you as a teacher if I tackle you and you lose?"

"I'll find a way to block that boy."

"That'll be the da- Oh crap! Look out below!" Lloyd jumped to avoid the two waves of silver light that rolled off of Kratos' sword and smashed into the wall he'd been standing by.

Genis decided to focus on the prayer, just the prayer, and ignore the swordsmen as best he could.

He decided that Raine was right, swordsmen were crazy, he never loved his kendama before today, he'd never been proud of it, but now he really was.

X

"Ha eat this!" Lloyd sent two demon fang's Kratos' way, the man easily side stepped them and then countered with two of his own. They came impossibly fast, one right after the other. Lloyd barely dodged that one, and looked up at the older man in shock. "How'd you do that?"

"I forget how draining the first one is and that it's supposed to be impossible to string two of them together." Kratos panted, they both were getting tired and slowing.

"That makes no sense."

Lloyd ducked the over hand swing, stepped back and gave Kratos as much room as he needed to swing that sword of his.

"It'll make sense when it needs to." Kratos lashed out with a shield punch and Lloyd brought his blades around in an X guard position so that the brunt of the hit smashed into the crossed section of his blades.

Lloyd used his inner strength to push Kratos back, to shove the man a few steps back. That was enough, with the floor as slippery as it was the older swordsman lost his footing. Lloyd hopped over the sprawled man's form, went up the stairs _again_ and hoped this was the last time cuz he was ready to drop.

X

"Good morning Professor!" Colette chirped at her mentor, the Chosen was already getting into some of the clams that someone had cooked. By the faint tingle in the air and the slight smell of cooked calcium Raine knew that Genis had used a fire spell to make the breakfast. Yawning Raine stretched, wished he pupils and brother good morning. When she wasn't answered with a sleepy grumble from Lloyd she looked about worried, and realized that Kratos wasn't with them either.

"Don't ask." Genis sighed, seeing his sister's expression. "Please, don't ask."

"Kratos and Lloyd are training." Colette chirped. "At least that's what Kratos said when they came in the room the third time."

"Came in the room?" Raine frowned, turned to her brother.

"You really really really don't want to know." Genis groaned. "I don't want to know and I found out."

That didn't sound good, she gave her brother the "tell me now" glare and he cringed and then after a five minuet impasse folded.

"Look in the hall that leads to the inner room of the temple and look to your right hand side."

Blinking Raine did so, stared at the destroyed mural.

"_Where are they_!" She roared fire flashing in her sky hued eyes.

"Upstairs." Colette chirped, pointing to the path the two men had traveled.

"And here they come…" Genis sighed.

Swinging his blade Kratos smashed his sword against Lloyd's own. The boy kept back peddling while he blocked blow after ringing blow, the red clad swordsman delivered a sharp kick to… well almost to a sensitive section. Kratos whipped back, blocked the clumsy hit with the flat of his sword.

"Give it up boy, you're wearing out."

"I'm not done yet!"

"_Lloyd Irving and Kratos Aurion_!" Raine screamed, all swordplay stopped immediately and both swordsmen turned to her.

"I don't see a monster do you?" Lloyd panted.

"No, we didn't break anything did we? Oh, wait the mural in the opening exchange."

"Oh crap… Do you think she…"

"How DARE you break that innocent little wall art from ages…"

"And we are dead…" Lloyd sighed.

"No, you are, you attacked me I merely ducked."

"The mayor's apple tree, remember? Genis tried that trick, or did I?"

"You did, well a least she can't spank me."

"She'll find a way, give her time."

Kratos spared Lloyd a humored look, highly doubting the woman could hurt him, it was the exact same look he'd worn when Raine had "Raine'd" him.

Lloyd decided to not tell the older swordsman about that however.

X

Fish again for breakfast, though it was by far lighter then dinner had been.

There was also an addition.

"Celery?" Genis picked up one of the long branches of the detested green stuff.

"Eating only meat can lead to sickness." Kratos explained, taking a few bites of his piece of celery. "It won't kill you to eat it."

"But we could cook it or…"

Kratos gave the child a long flat look.

"Just eat it, it's not like we have spices or garnishes, or anything else save bare necessities."

"If I'd gone back I could have brought back more then just some dumb medicine and greens."

Kratos ignored that, ate his food absently. He didn't eat all that much, certainly not as much as Lloyd did. Raine watched as the man toyed with his meal, spread it out before him, but did not eat more then a few mouthfuls. Certainly Colette didn't notice, nor did Genis. She was startled to see a small frown of worry on Lloyd's face; the gesture was swiftly hidden when Kratos lifted his head to scan the area with his black brown eyes. Lloyd did not point out what he saw, nor did Kratos push Lloyd into saying what was on his mind. Colette however while not attuned to Kratos, was very much in tune with Lloyd.

"Lloyd, what's the matter?"

"N… nothing…" Lloyd fiddled with one of the swords that rested on the ground besides him. "Nothing's wrong."

Genis lifted his head up from the meal, met the Iselian swordsman's eyes or rather tried. Lloyd would not meat his gaze and return it.

"Well that obviously means something's wrong." Genis crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Spit it out Lloyd, if Colette can't Noishe-eye it out of you we'll tickle you, and if that doesn't work there's always shock therapy."

Electricity crackled between Genis' fingers and Lloyd paled.

"It's nothing important OK, I'm just worried about the seal."

"Don't worry Lloyd, the angels will be there and though there will be a trial we won't get hurt."

Lloyd almost said something, doubt, hesitance, flashed in his eyes, but after a long pause he said nothing. He did not believe, it was hard to imagine what kind of world was there for someone who didn't believe, hard to imagine there not being a Martel, not being angels. She had been told of them since she was a child, Genis had been reared on the Martelian faith, and Colette's very life was immersed in the Martel prophecy. Yet to Lloyd it made no sense, it must seem shear madness to be going on this journey. They had all done him a great disservice not pushing him to accept the faith, that's what Phadria and the priests said, and in a way they were right. Lloyd did not understand; could not understand what was happening in front of him. He was not equipped to deal with the realities of the Regeneration. None of them really were.

"Raine, are you feeling alright?"

Raine caught her brother's eye and managed a smile form somewhere.

"Of course, it's just the monumental importance of what we are doing is catching up on me."

Kratos turned to her, his lips curled in one corner in a dark ironic smile.

"Really?" The mercenary whispered. "How important is it, I wonder?"

"To Regenerate the world is to save the world." Colette protested.

"Regenerate is not the same as save Ms. Brunel, regenerate does not mean save, they are two wildly different concepts." Kratos rubbed a wet strip of his blankets over his shield to clean off the bits of meat, oil, and bone from their breakfast. "Regenerate, in it's most basic definition is to… heal, but to do so in a way that something corrupt or flawed becomes bettered or purged. To save, well the definition is that you keep the saved object, person, as is. I've always wondered, which are you doing, regenerating or saving?"

"Both." Colette said simply. "Regeneration is a kind of saving; to complete this journey will be to save everyone."

"Do you always take things at face value because it comes from a supposed holy being?" Kratos mused, looking up from his cleaning to pin the golden haired girl with a somber gaze. "If Remial were to command you to jump off a building would you do so?"

"That's not a problem." Colette giggled. "I have wings remember?"

Genis snickered. "Really Kratos, you're supposed to be smart not dumb, unless being with Lloyd all the time is making you dumb-"

"Take that back!" Lloyd hopped to his feet.

"What that you can be dumb?" Genis grinned. "Or should I say dumber?"

That triggered a wrestling match, the adults sighed but did nothing to break it up as the rough and tumble nature of the boy's friendship would only express itself in another way. Keeping a weather eye on the children so they didn't stupidly tumble into a pool of boiling water Raine considered what Kratos had said then decided to take some of the strain of Kratos' prying questions off of Colette.

"The angels are holy. Even though you are a human certainly you can sense the power and magnificence that Colette's father radiates?"

"Power yes, the angel would be a formidable opponent... Magnificence, well that's how you look at it."

"They say that only those who've fallen from the light think angels are scary." Colette whispered. Her eyes were darkened with sadness and brimming with pity.

"What kind of people are those who have fallen from the light Chosen?"

"They aren't, those who don't follow Martel aren't people."

Kratos rose an eyebrow in a mute challenge to one of the foundations of the Martel faith. The mercenary let his gaze drift over to Lloyd who had pinned Genis and had the young elf's head in a lock and was running a knuckle over the boy's scalp. Colette followed his gaze and blushed, looked uncomfortable, she could not meet Kratos' dark brooding eyes.

"You should not question the faith of those around you Kratos. It's disrespectful, we have been polite about your heathen beliefs and this interrogation on your behalf is wrong."

"I only seek to understand."

"To convert?" Colette asked hope laced through her voice.

"No, your faith motivates you, compels you to act in ways I do not understand. My ignorance is a danger to you. I seek understanding, comprehension, because as alien as my ways are to you, yours are more so to me."

"That's all it is then, a job." Raine sighed.

Colette looked from one adult to another, could sense the serious nature of what was going on but was confused, lost in their game of subtlety and evasiveness. Seeing that confusion Kratos turned to the child, his expression was for one second filled with a kind of softness. There was a grief in those eyes, a softening in the frown lines around that cold distant face. It was gone, the grief, the pity, winked out like a candle to a gust of winter wind.

"Attachments are dangerous, necessary, but dangerous, and can be potentially crippling. I am very careful where I place my emotional attachments, and I will not do so to someone I know is going to their death." Kratos stared straight into Colette's eyes, ignored Raine and rammed his lesson home with the force of a sword thrust. "I know what you wish to say Chosen, yes I am friends with Lloyd, but I trust him because he is not blinded by faith. When you rely on one thing, and only one thing, to see the world you look through is limited. I find it akin to living with only one eye open."

"It's not." Colette protested.

"Of course not, to you what I say is wrong and what you say is truth. There is only one truth, so there should only be one eye to see through. That much I do understand, I know of arrogance and the blindness it entails." Kratos ignored Raine's offended protest, ignored how Lloyd yalped in pain as he was lightly shocked, he ignored the world and focused on Colette. "Know this, I will never convert. Do not dare to force your faith upon me. Do not feed me the lies your church spews as holy writ, as truth... It may be truth to you Chosen, but to me being blind, controlled, contained, those are the greatest of sins, and it is what your doctrine demands and shall never get from me so long as I draw breath. Do you understand me now, my purposes to the questions I put to you now?"

Colette nodded. "I'm sorry."

"For what, that I feel differently then you do about the nature of faith?"

Colette did not answer him, and he did not bother to ask again. Raine embraced Colette, sheltered her in a gentle embrace and the chill of Kratos' words were lost under that warm touch.

"In the future Kratos, keep your questions to yourself." Raine hissed, eyes blazing.

Lips curling on one corner, a horrible silent laugh, Kratos nodded. And if Remial radiated magnificence Kratos radiated scorn. There was no pity in him now, only a dark humor.

"As you will."

X

"_Let the flame of passion, forsaken yet not forgotten, stand as mute guard. Let the heat ward off all foul, let them serve as twin guards to the Chosen One who shall be filled with purity. The empty vessel must be filled with tranquility and the world's life's blood sacrificed for the life of the world."_

"Blood?" Lloyd squeaked. He looked up from the writing on the rooms marble wall then looked at the empty vase and twin unlit torches. For a long moment he considered the size of the vase, stared at the writing to see if it really said what he thought it did, and then looked at Colette with no little worry on his face. "That doesn't sound good."

"It's not literal." Kratos explained, Raine had been watching Kratos (yet again) like a hawk, and the fact that Kratos was hanging out with him seemed to be bothering her.

"Lit-or-all?"

Kratos gave him a long suffering look, than began to massage the side of his head.

"It's a riddle, a play on words."

"Oh," Lloyd nodded his comprehension, than frowned. "What's a riddle?"

"A riddle is… Please tell me you're joking."

"Umm I could say that, but it'd be lying and the dwarven vows are really..."

"Didn't you ever play riddles or word games growing up?" Lloyd just continued to look at Kratos, completely baffled by the question. "Just out of morbid curiosity… what did you do for fun as a child?"

"Tag, races, hide and go seek, truth or dare…" Lloyd shrugged.

"That explains it." Kratos sighed. "Didn't your father teach you anything intellectual, did he give you any mental stimulating activities to pursue as a child?"

"Huh?" Lloyd scratched the back of his head.

"Kratos," Raine sighed, her eyes looking upon distant times. "When Lloyd enrolled in my school he couldn't even read or write Common, he wrote a kind of pidgin dwarven/common hybrid, and that's what he spoke too."

"I spoke alright; I just used dwarven when I couldn't explain it in Human."

"In human?" Genis protested.

"Err Common…" Lloyd squirmed. "OK so I was dumb alright, I'm not all that much anymore."

Genis snickered and Lloyd glared at his short elven friend.

"I think it's nice that Lloyd knows Dwarf things." Colette said, looking up from her analyses of the vase. Raine had already gone nutty, had already analyzed and studied everything and while she was doing so the boys had struck up a card game, Colette had prayed, and Kratos had stared at the swirling hissing mists and lapped at the edge of the marble platform where the alter and artifacts lay. "It makes him special, and if everyone was the same I bet things would get boring."

Kratos rose an eyebrow at that one, and Lloyd was about ready to ask what was up, because something was up. Kratos didn't look all intent and serious with the raised eyebrow thing going on unless it was really serious. He never got his chance however.

"Lloyd," Raine frowned, looked confused, like this was going to be hard to explain. "A riddle is words that mean something but the meaning is secret."

"Well if it's secret are we supposed to find out?"

"If we weren't I don't think the angels would put it here." Colette said hesitantly.

"So it's a trial?"

"I guess so…" Colette giggled. "This will be easy, it'll be a lot better then the fire monster, see I told you no one would get hurt."

Kratos made a noise in his throat that sounded suspiciously like a muffled laugh. Hearing the sound Genis turned on him.

"What was that?"

"The mist is catching in my lungs." Kratos coughed again. "Go help your friends elf, and leave me to my thoughts."

"I swear, he thinks this whole thing is funny…" Genis grumbled to his sister as the elves joined their human friends at the alter to puzzle out the cryptic words.

"He doesn't believe, so we all must look like a group of sociologically challenged individuals scrambling inside various ruins, going place to place for no reason. From what little I do know of the man that type of humor is his favorite."

"So then that's proof that he's undeniably, indisputably, a jerk."

Raine's lips twitched. "That wasn't very nice Genis, but… yes it is."

X

It took an hour, but not because they couldn't figure the answer. Raine had it figured in ten minutes, what took so long was that she snatched up the vase to make comparisons between it and the other angelic runes in the lower temple. They went to the holy hall of water, or something like that, who remembered stuff like that anyways? Lloyd watched Genis and Raine go down the hall, Colette trailed after them. After their duel Kratos and Lloyd knew how safe the lower section was, having taken breaks in their earlier play to deal with the slimy lumps that rose out of the water and attacked them with tiny tentacles. There had been many smaller monsters that Kratos had called jelly fish. The whole area was as safe as could be, so Kratos for once didn't make any protest save to order them to stay on land.

He was ignored as Raine in fully ruin nuttiness ran off dragging Genis behind her.

"Third… or was it the forth time this had happened?" Kratos murmured.

"I lost count." Lloyd shuffled the cards; he couldn't feel the edges dig into his fingers as the thick gloves he wore were muffling his sense of touch. "I wanted to see the seal today…" Lloyd whined. "So we could leave but…"

"You want to go back on the washtubs?"

"No!" Lloyd shuddered. "But we have to, to go back…"

"Understood." Kratos smiled, leaned against on of the angel statues, his arms crossed in front of him, obscuring the gem imbedded in his chest.

"Hey I'll play you a game." Lloyd shuffled the cards again and gave Kratos a pleading look.

"I do not play children's games…"

"Stakes are who paddles Raine back to land, best two out of three."

"Not a word of this to the others."

"Me?"

Kratos joined the young man and facing each other, both cross legged. The wails of marvelous arched through the mist below, reached their ears, and confirmed the fact that the white block above the lower alter was actually the platform that they rested on now. Kratos cut the first hands and so began their game.

X

Kratos hissed, eyes blazing, as they made their way across the thin bridge that had shuttered out from the side of the platform. "You could not have beaten me eight times…"

"Hey, I told you not to add who's paddling Noishe into it, but just cuz you lost both bets doesn't mean you get to sulk-"Lloyd laughed. "Gods I'm sounding like Raine!"

Kratos snorted. "No you are justly rebuking me, that woman…" Kratos shuddered. "Rebukes with no cause."

"She doesn't need a staff, have the monsters break a vase from the Karlan war and she'd smack them to death."

Despite the immaturity of their banter Kratos allowed himself to smile, he seemed to be doing that more often then not when he was around Lloyd. The boy had a talent for sliding through his mental barriers and the walls around his soul. A dangerous talent that, dangerous for them both.

"Keep your guard up when we reach the chamber, I hope there are no surprises but I highly doubt my hopes will be answered."

They stepped on the dish… it was in interesting hybrid between a large dish and pedestal, and in response to their mana signatures the gem in the tan disk turned red. Silver light shot from the gem, expanded so that it held all of them in a circle of light. The thin ring of light flickered and there was a flash of agony as it ripped into them and folded time, distance, and space into nothingness and dragged them all through the nothingness it made. Dizzy, head ringing, Kratos staggered back a step and his foot went over the edge of the small platform and into the water. They stood on an island of white marble, pillars of smooth white rose from their engraved blocks. So fine was the carving it seemed as if the waves of the sea had been somehow contained by a balisk's gaze. Waves turned to stone, sere set to serve as feet to the pillars, those pillars went up a good seven feet and met a roof of smoothed down earth. Lloyd craned his neck, stared at the angelic carvings above and muttered "figures" it was all Kratos could do to not laugh. Their close proximity with the others allowed Raine to hear that whispered comment and delivered a firm smack.

"Ouch…"

"He felt that." Genis muttered, rubbing his head in sympathy pain.

There was, much to Kratos' distaste, little space to move. They all could stand shoulder to shoulder and those on the outer edges of the line would have their toes hanging over the water. Well if there wasn't a pillar in the way, if there was they'd be uncomfortably smashed together. Speaking of being smashed together… He firmly wrenched his arm from Raine's grasp. Water, a deep pool of onix hued water lay still as death at the feet of this marble island, from some distance away on the other side of the cavern that housed this small chapel sized alter was a wall of water. For lack of better words there was a huge waterfall, but its endless motion seemed lack luster. Instead of a great white froth at its base, there was scarcely a ripple. The swirling churned up waters little more then sighs that made the onyx ripple only a handful of feet in any direction from that wall. If the water was indeed the pulse of the world then the very heart of all must be shuttering to a stop. It was a chilling defiance of natural law, the waterfall's silence and tameness, considering hat he'd seen of lesser waterfalls in his life the noise from this one should have been deafening for its size and the fact that it was less then a mile away.

"Goddess Martel…" Kicking himself Kratos turned to the Chosen watched and waited. "I beseech thee grant thy humble servant, thy messenger…"

Lloyd shivered, looked around and something was unsettling the boy, a tension had fallen upon him. Whether from the mention of the Goddess or the break in nature's laws behind them, or both, it could very well be both. Whatever the cause the boy was tying himself up into knots.

"Easy." Kratos murmured, gripping the child's arm with a hand. At his touch Lloyd relaxed, questions boiled in him, a knowledge that something was wrong but what was wrong was unknown. "Wait, just wait."

Not being scolded for fussing or being restless, not being reprimanded for being a fool that must be quite a change for him. Lloyd relaxed at the words, at the touch, and Kratos let the younger man's arm go. Blue arched from the alter, a searing blue light that scorched it's way into his brain like daggers. He winced back from the light, cringed back from the marble pedestal. There was so much white around them, it blurred the senses, the contrast between the dark and light so extreme that you became numb with over exposure after a second, then to have another color just knife through it… Rubbing his aching eyes Kratos waited either for the swan winged angel to materialize or something much like the fire cat to appear. There was a long moment, a long moment of silence, that moment stretched into another, into a minute, into two minutes…

No angel, no monsters, it was silent save for the odd drip of that fell from some stalactite on the ceiling.

"Oh no, do you think I broken it!" Colette wailed, her wings were drawn and rubbing against each other in an open show of anxiety.

"Maybe the Angels forgot to put a monster with the light." Lloyd suggested thoughtfully, and was smacked by Raine for that.

"Lloyd Irving, you apologize right now! That was the worst thing I've ever heard anyone say…"

"Ummm I'm sorry winged feathered people I didn't mean…"

"Be sincere!"

There was another smack, but Kratos paid no heed to it. He felt, strangely disconnected from the world about him. As if he were floating and their conversation and antics were little more then insignificant mist. He stared unblinking at the world around him, seeing little, but hearing a soft voice. It was familiar, and its familiarity galvanized him even in this strange detached state.

"My head feels a little funny." Colette yawned and did a half hearted stretch; he brushed past her, uncaring. She was a voice, insignificant compared to _her _voice that called to him past the altar.

"Oww… Does anyone else here that?"

"Hear what?" Raine frowned, rubbed her head, she felt a small headache coming on.

"Marble!" Genis shot past them a look of glee on his face.

"What? Genis that's im-"

Lloyd stared into the air before him, his eyes empty of logic of reason. Joy twisted his lips into a smile, but it seemed absent, hollow, as the joy did not reach the boy's voice nor did it do anything to light those empty black eyes.

"Mom?"

"Lloyd, Kratos, Genis, stay away from the water, I have a bad feeling…" Colette called out.

She might as well command the tides to stop, or talk to a rock, because that's how intelligent the men were at that moment.

Kneeling by the black water Kratos seemed to shiver, almost have a concentrated seizure amongst his back muscles. That was disturbing, almost nauseating, he reached out with a hand for something that only he could see. There was a sigh, the water parted and a thin pale hand came from the depths.

"Beloved…" Kratos murmured.

The hand reached up, petted, and caressed the mercenary's face with soft gentle motions. Kratos shivered once, leaned forward and bent down so low he seemed ready to topple into the black waters.

"Kiss me." Came a soft sigh from the water, a rich throaty voice filled with passion, used to stoke lust. Kratos seemed to hesitate, as if the tone ill suited the person he had been calling to.

"Kratos, get away from there!" Colette shrieked, fear tightening her gentle voice till it came out as a tortured squeak.

Then Raine saw why the scream, the hands had left thin trails of red behind. Kratos' face was practically dripping blood and he seemed not to feel it. A scream of her own ripped from Raine's throat as the aged hands that had been ruffling Genis' hair shimmered, turned into a horrible hybrid of fingers, claws and teeth. Through some unholy mergence the creature sported thumb and pink, the rest of the creature's fingers were a disgusting lump of writhing twisting flesh. The motions betrayed the lumps as fish, for though pinned, or perhaps in truth, the bulk of the hand there was something of the desperation of a beached fish even as the "fish" nibbled and nipped the flesh.

"Genis!" Raine charged, luckily the platform was short, she was able to reach her brother and swat those hands aside with her staff before they ripped and tore into the flesh of her baby brother's neck.

Hands became fish fang hybrids, one of them had burrowed into Lloyd's shoulder and the young swordsman did not flinch in the slightest.

Colette was at Lloyd's side, trying to make him leave the water, but the young swordsman stared blankly ahead, a smile curling his lips he would not respond to the most frantic pleas.

Well Raine would have no such problems, her brother was small enough to carry if need be. He was in that same numbed and dazed state so Raine bent to wrap an arm around his waist. She cried out in pain, staggered back, and looked at him in shock.

Fire flicked across his fingers, he looked to wear twin gloves of smoldering red. Numbly she looked down at her arm; she had a pair of Genis' hand sized burns.

"Genis! Why did…"

He turned to her, looked at the water expectantly and there came the hands, and that voice calling for him to jump in.

"Mr. Kratos. Please you have to do something!" Colette shrieked in the man's ear. No response, he was as brain dead as the…

"Kratos!" Raine prayed she was right, she knew the mind not the heart so this was beyond her normal scope. "Kratos, Lloyd's in danger!"

That got a response, he shivered and looked around the room, seeing but not seeing.

"There look!" She pointed to Lloyd who was kneeling over the water and she hoped he could see the red marks that he wasn't that far gone…

He growled, staggered to his feet, and the look he gave that water, the hatred, as if he was seeing something within it that he absolutely loathed.

"They would not survive my hatred." Kratos had said that, had said that about them, Lloyd had told her of it some time during their travels.

Seeing the raw hate in Kratos' eyes there was no doubt in her mind that if it was directed at her she would have died, but luckily for her it was not.

"Lloyd!" Kratos barked, his voice a trumpet's cry, an order, and it went unheeded for a long moment. The hands withdrew, slithered under the inky blackness of the water, a song seemed to rise out of the water. Raine shivered, the unholy clammering would appease only the most deranged with it's discord. Not phased by the noise Genis and Lloyd turned to their companions, their eyes still empty, their expressions more suited wooden carvings then faces of living intelligent beings.

"Why are you getting in my way Kratos?" Lloyd whispered; his voice a dull monotone.

"Don't you want to see us happy Sis?" Genis spoke in the same tone, fire licked across his fingers.

Blood dripped down their faces, slid down like a red rain and though speaking should have been an agony for them both they appeared to be unaffected by the pain.

"What are you saying Lloyd?" Kratos whispered. "You make no sense."

"You understand." Came that breathless monotone. "You don't want to so you don't hear it. Isn't that how it always is with you Kratos? You're such a coward that you don't see, but you never see, so no shame to you, after all the blind can't see?"

"Lloyd, stop saying stuff like that!" Colette protested, tears making her voice quake.

"Why not, after all the strong rule and the weak suffer. It's the truth. Let us show you the truth Colette, the truth beyond your pathetic weak Martel. Like Goddess like Chosen eh?"

"You've only gotten in my way." Genis giggled. "No more now, now I'll go home where I belong."

Fire light stained Lloyd in even more blood, or made it look as if he were stained with more blood. That light illuminate his swords as he drew them, made them seeped in crimson. Lloyd grinned. Or maybe the monster in the water made Lloyd grin as well as speak.

"You're gunna pay, all the times you held me back, you're gunna pay for now!"

"No holding back this time." Lloyd admonished Kratos. "you always hold back but don't bother with it this time, unless you wanna be fish food."

Fish food? That was something Lloyd would not say, not part of his normal active vocabulary. Raine frowned, than looked to the still water, had the hands been a product of her imagination, a nightmare given off by a spell or a piece of her imagination? Or was it truth?

"Kratos, don't fight him, cast a lightning spell into the water." Raine whispered, then drew her staff and grimly stepped in front to the mercenary.

"Lloyd, I know you're in there, and that you wont hurt us if you can help it."

"Lloyd who?" The creature controlling Lloyd managed to inject some humor into his voice, like it was in on a joke. "Fry her runt!"

"Fireball!" Red arched through the air and Raine summoned a shield of mana with a thought to deflect the hit.

Colette made a tossing motion with a hand and a red hammer materialized in the air above her brother.

"I'm sorry Genis!"

The hammer hit with a comical squeaky noise and her brother staggered back.

Oblivious to Genis' peril the creature controlling Lloyd made the younger swordsman charged her. Raine caught the first double swing of the blades with her staff.

"Pathetic runt!" Lloyd snarled, "I've inhabit stronger bodies that this, what a weakling! Can't even kill a girl in one pass."

"What are you?" raine snapped, taking a step back and ramming the staff into her pupil's gut.

"I am. That's all you need to know!" The blades came again, this time as a twin thrust. Raine hopped back, summoned an org of light mana and knocked Lloyd from his feet by "throwing" the weak photon spell at Lloyd's legs.

"Crap, pathetic body!" Lloyd howled, crumpling in a heap at her feet.

"What are you?" Raine hissed, leveling her staff at his head so that the metal head was less then an inch from Lloyd's skull.

"What you are what you deny."

Raine mentally begged Lloyd's forgiveness and delivered a hard swing at Lloyd's head. The swordsman staggered, nursed his head and crawled to his feet. He looked at her and smiled. And she knew that this thing would not stop until Lloyd was dead, until she had beaten her pupil to death with her staff.

X

Rage, he'd never been so furious, so angry. It boiled in his blood, engulfed reason in a scarlet haze. Lifting a hand Kratos roared out the last lines of a spell and a sword of lighting roared down and shattered the black stillness with veins of yellow white light. The water level dropped and there came a chorus of animal and monster screams and the whole lake was engulfed in scalding electric fire.

Three sets of hands gripped the edge of the platform, three fish hand hybrids came out of the muck and crawled towards him, and with the hands came screams, unholy jibberings that pulled at his tried sanity and made him sink to his knees and scream in pain. His voice became one with the voices of child and adult alike, and it seemed the whole world screamed with him.

X

_Discord is to what?_

_Harmony is to discord as light is to dark_

_One may not take the other away because without one comprehension of the other is lost._

So went the write of Martel.

So the will of her Goddess called forth that with light you battled dark and with harmony you battled discord.

Wings a scarlet blur touched with veins of pink Colette lifted her face to the heavens that the stone enshrouded dark kept from her eyes. And so she sang, she sang of light and joy and hope, and the discord fell before that army far mightier then any mortal mans.

X

They shrank back from the song as they shrank back from the light that flashed off of blade. Insane, furious, Kratos fell upon them like unholy judgment form some demonic gods, and he brought them death. They bled and writhed and begged and he cut into them, animal, less and more then animal in his brutal rage. His sword sheared through scale and bone and cut into vitals. He did not stop striking them until they were little more then mince meat. And that did not stop him, the lack of foe, a voice called him back.

"Kratos…"

The mercenary turned, looked to the younger swordsman in shame, red dripped from his sword, from his frame.

He was covered in blood.

Tears burned in Lloyd's eyes, horror danced in their depths, fear twisted the normally jovial expression.

"Kratos…"

The man let the blade fall from his fingers, let it clatter to the stone.

As if in a daze Kratos walked to Lloyd, knelt by the young man who was crying.

"I'm sorry, oh God I never meant to say that stuff… It wasn't me, please it wasn't me!"

"It's alright, I understand." Kratos reached out and with a bloody hand stroked Lloyd's face. "It wasn't you, I know that."

"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…" Lloyd curled into that grip, oblivious of the blood, he cried bitter tears into those strong arms.

"Shh..." Kratos fondly held Lloyd as he would have his own son. "It's over now, it's over, nothing like that will ever happen again. I'll keep you safe…" Kratos whispered into the adolescent's hair. "Nothing will hurt you like that ever again, I won't allow it."

From the other side of the miniature temple a similar scene played out. Genis cried into his sister's embrace. Cursed and kissed the wounds, his grief for hurting her had pushed him past all reason and so Raine could do nothing but hold him through the flood of pain.

It was in that moment the light came down from heaven, looked upon the suffering of mortals about it and became the Angelic guardian Remial. Only Colette saw him, heard his voice and his demands, and then he was gone with a rain of feathers. Still wreathed in light, gleaming with the halo of angelic mana, of the holy touch of her Goddess Colette drifted back to the earth and looked upon her friends. Surrounded by mortal grief the light seemed a lonely thing, a sad thing that did not understand this pain, and since the light did not understand it was Colette's duty as a vessel of that light to not understand it either. But she did, and she wanted to cry, she really did, but only one tear could squeak by around the wall behind her eyes.


	20. Wind over plain

Review response from 18-19 sorry I keep forgetting guys

Gijinka Renamon: Glad you're liking it, don't worry more to come.

Bursting Girl: Will you share the sherbet, I love sherbet! Glad you're liking it so much.

Serrrated Darkness: Ruin mode is scary isn't it? Tethe'alla temples, she's going to go completely nuts and she's probably going to try to get them to go between worlds so she can conduct more through research comparing and contrasting the temples. I'm glad you liked Sheena, you'll see more of her, as well as more Corrine. And I guess you're wait is over.

Lil-Samuu: Bows, I do my best. Ironic as I find your works are some of my favorites, but I'm myself a bit of a closet reviewer and keep "forgetting" to send you a line on your work. Well I'm happy you love Corrine and Noishe being put in, I always wanted them to have more of a role and they seem to be forgotten for huge spans of the game, not liking that I decided to fix it.

FallenStarAngel: I liked it too… I just wish I could have done it in the game. Matter of fact that's all I kept thinking about, as I was rather tired when I got their first time plus it seems so logical you know? If you liked Raine's nuttiness in this temple wait till the "wind" temple. Dear god my outline has so many ruin freak outs since it is a genuine historical ruin and not a Martelian temple.

Gamecubegirl1: My fav line so far too "must not kill client" I was like "must not kill Colette" until she grew on me a little. As for subtle, I think it's becoming my middle name with this fic. So much delicate for shadowing, past shadowing and all that stuffs kinda tricky but so worth it when someone sees it!

Gyppygirl2021: Great I can raise my affection ranking easy now! (adds 10,000 gibberish words to story) kidding XD

Saffire Persian: I will check it out when I can not use a public computer; most of them here are either permanently muted or monitored so I can't go to anything but writing related sites. : P

Wow character by character analysis critic! Alright! Let me explain what needs explaining using your format.

Kratos: So it's a little obvious that I share BBQbert's love of Kratos Lloyd friendship building huh? Raising Kratos' friendship with Lloyd, at the very beginning of the game you can see he has a fondness for Lloyd. He hides it, but it becomes obvious when he starts butting into conversations with the rest of Lloyd's friends that he has an interest in the red clad swordsmen. Plus if you see all the swordsman skits when Lloyd addresses him as brother he accepts the title. There's a tone of dialogue in game that I saw first play though –back when I didn't know the SPOILER- that I felt could support an open relationship in a longer story. Plus the game only shows you so much where with a novel you can get away with so much more. The proof I got was from some of the skits and just the feeling I got first play through.

skit ex's: "Chicken and the Egg" skit, "Paternal Love", and the scene outside Falnoir when you catch him star gazing.

The start of the "game" in chapter 19 was probably the uh stone's influence (if you read Broken you know what I'm saying).

Lloyd: He comes as too smart at the moment in my fic but I can not stand an idiot protagonist, so much so I bumped up his general intelligence, or at least my opinion that I got of it in the game. You see hints of the caring, but I felt there was so much more to it –how else would they all stay loyal to them especially Raine and Genis after the anti-discrimination reason for Yggdrasil's scheme comes out in the open) The fish food thing was a reference to sayings picked up due to location. Because Iselia is mainly a farm land location knowledge on how to eat seafood, the taste for seafood, and sayings like fish food wouldn't be common as they would in say Izoold or Luin.

Colette: Chapter 8, Variations, if you were curious. It's Ossa trail, since you pass it like twice –once t get through and then later to attack the skeleton- little wonder anyone remembers it. Let me tell you writing an innocent is hard, not being one myself and on the slightly disillusioned side of the good nature of humanity (comes with being a pessimist I suppose) she tends to fade in the background somewhat as I rarely write what I don't know. One lines, innocent blurbs, they tend to stick out more because of the tactic I use.

Genis: I loved his personality in the game and as with all the character I try to keep them all in character and if I make changes I go nuts giving reasons for that change. If you consider it DES and Broken were there to explain any of the changes that might have occurred with Kratos' personality. I knew he'd be different and not totally canon from TOS so I had to justify it before I got too deep in Shards… As it is Genis the easiest to use as I was much like him growing up. Though I was no genius by any means I was a total book worm and geek, so it's like stepping into the past to write him.

Raine: Glad you bought the reasoning; I get nagged about the tension between them by some rabid Kraine fans. ' Anyways, I just felt I was explaining what the game could only lightly cover, you know with the Ruin Mode and the hydrophobia, as it is being able to add on more is one of the quirks of writing a novel.

As for why the guys, it was a siren like creature, in lore it was a she creature and the spell only affected the males, don't worry I'll squeak in details somehow to explain this in the story.

The chapter _was_ rushed. I have review alerts "on" so I get e-mailed when you guys contact me, plus I got e-mails from people after I made the announcement giving me anti-virus links and pleas to not stop. I guess I better make a general announcement

**There are only two reasons I will stop, if I am seriously injured or if there is a family crisis, and I will continue writing somehow once I've recovered, those two events will not stop me from finishing what I started.**

Light of Judgement: Your wait is over… and I'm surprised at the interest in the religious sections, I expected it to bring several problems.

Chapter 20

**To learn how to fly **

**A scene edited for clarification**

It had been a night of staring at the darkness; of listening to the Chosen draw strained breaths. She had been sick, vomiting, seizures, and as if the fates were truly turning on them that the bites and influence of the water monsters were venomous. He was strong enough to kick it off naturally, but he had to abandon them to fetch the rest of the medicine. There were no more gels, no more antidotes. They'd used everything and none of the children could even leave the chamber that the angel had appeared before them. It had made for a tense night, or rather a resting period, as with no way to see sun or moon all time was lost. Raine had watched her patients, focused solely on them so not to see the water. Having no choice he watched the still black pool, stared at the wall of water that left no froth, hardly left any mark of its passing.

"The world is dying." Kratos whispered, stared at the black expanse of still water. "The streams are tainted; their paths choked with dust, the fires falter and hardly stir the winds that live are slow, lethargic. Stone becomes earth, earth becomes stone, the air falls low as do we all."

"Some prophecy of your faith?" Raine tried to smile, but he did not turn to see the gesture, did not move to regard her. Though she could not see his face, for he faced the black waters, she could feel his gaze flick to catch some hint of motion, some ripple across the surface.

"We broke the seal yet nothing has changed."

"Of course things have changed, can't you feel the mana coming from the altar? It pours out and feeds into the dying world." Raine smiled at the man's naïve.

"I feel something, a tension sweeps past me, it rushes beyond to places I can not see, yet in it's rushing it touches nothing, gives nothing. It is a meaningless motion, a spike of the mana level that does nothing."

Raine lifted her head, looked up from stroking her shivering brother's hair. Even in sleep he shook, as Lloyd still trapped in slumber cried out from time to time.

Kratos was a shard of darkness. Yes he was pale, his chest looked to be pure ivory, his clothes were the color of onyx. Still it was not the colors that lead to the image of stone in her mind, one could say cloud white and night black after all… It was his stillness. He was as still as stone, with no breeze to give the illusion of motion to his hair and cape he could have been a statue.

"The world is dying, and what we do… it is not saving it."

"Of course it is, Colette is becoming and angel and the blessings of Martel fall upon this world. It just takes time for us to be able to calculate the effects. As the church explains it, the mana must meet with that of its compliment before there is a benefit for the world."

"Really?" Kratos turned to her. "That is what your church says?"

"Yes."

"And you believe it?"

"Yes." Raine frowned at the man, wondered what he was getting at.

"_Lo' let sea be carried upon winds back so it may fall and heal the earth. Let wind fuel flame and from purifying light shall flame be purged. Then blessed star will touch blessed spire and so shall the trials of the Chosen save the world." _Kratos quirked his lips slightly with the recitation, he spoke it with a dull irony laced through his tone.

"For an atheist you are knowledgeable of the writ."

"I am not an atheist."

"Excuse me, for an agnostic."

"I know my gods."

"What are you then?"

"That which you deny, a defiance, I am a flaw in your Goddess' perfection." Kratos turned, stared at the still waters. "Go to sleep Ms. Sage, you can not become ill, I have no way to treat you should you become sick. They need you, the children…"

"You may not be Genis' best friend, but he doesn't hate you, and don't think for a second that Colette doesn't like you." Raine yawned, eased herself and lay down upon the cold marble. "You may like to imagine you are expendable, but you aren't. All I know was that if you died it would rip Lloyd to shreds."

There was a long pause, a tense silence. "He should not care for me, he has friends, family."

"He does, and maybe…" Raine yawned. "You need to start thinking about that. The way you act, you throw yourself at everything, ignore the danger, you don't think about if you die, you don't think of your health, but he does."

Kratos said nothing, went back to staring at the water. Many minutes passed while he quietly digested this news. Yes he knew the boy cared for him, as a friend he presumed, but there was something more potent, more lasting then a mere childish show of friendship. It was hidden between the words, perhaps in the woman's tone, and he decided to find out what she meant.

"He does?"

Raine could not respond as she had fallen asleep. With a shaking hand he put his palm over the gem in his chest.

"Who am I… what kind of man am I to accept an innocents friendship. When all I leave is death behind, when all I offer is death, I should force him away as I planned to do before." Kratos knelt by the still water and slid a gloved hand to the still pool. His digit sank into the pool; it left a crimson ripple. The red was his only mark in this world it seemed.

"As before, before what? What even has triggered this?" Kratos murmured looking back and wincing a bit at the view of days past. "So many small things, a piling of pebbles, one thrown stone, one defiance, my own and the boy's… for neither of us are beyond rebuke for our errors. It all seems to be going to Hell now, but then a man who is so "un-enlightened" that he cringes back from heaven probably isn't the best judge of what Hell is."

Rubbing his fingers together, red seeped out from the black fabric, he looked at himself. Pale white skin, almost an unhealthy hue, wreathed in black fabric, two false wings of night hued fabric hung over his shoulders, his auburn hair was slick with the monster's blood. Red, his mark and his trade.

Ironic enough red was Lloyd's favorite color.

"You do not believe as they do, but are you as I am, or is it fond wishing that makes me see this…" Kratos turned to the others, looked to Lloyd who slept, still lost in shame and grief even in his slumber. "I made a promise, I will keep it, I keep those promises that matter and I discard those that don't."

He pushed off from the pillar that was to his right, pulled himself to his feet. Image of omnipotence be damned, he had no care of his image. He might very well sacrifice sanity for this, for the repercussions of this.

But he had made the gamble once before, dropping all hesitance he had snatched at what he wanted, took it, and had had five years. Five wonderful years that though ended in bloody agony were cherished. And after, he had almost ten catching his feet, almost ten years recovering… He sank to his knees by Lloyd's still form, fondly stroked the brown locks.

"Us'il osi…" He sighed those words and continued to stroke the locks of chocolate hued hair. He could pick out a few thread; no highlights, that was the silly feminine term, he could pick out the few auburn locks. Lazily he wound one around his finger, as he had done so from time to time with his son.

_"Daddy… stop mussin' me hair!"_

_"Stop messing with my hair; is the proper way to express that sentiment." Kratos corrected, letting the lock go. "I believe it's time for someone to have a hair cut."_

_"Hair cut! Does it hurt?"_

_"Of course not, so long as Mommy isn't the one holding the scissors you'll be fine."_

_"I heard that!" Anna snarled. "Speaking of haircuts…"_

_"My hair is fine."_

_"The end's all frayed and chaotic, you Mr. Aurion, need a trim!"_

_"I will tend to it myself, and I will cut our son's hair as well. I've seen your attempts on our 'dog' and I know for a fact that he goes into hiding when you pull out the scissors."_

_"I only did that once."_

_"He had a bald spot." Kratos snarled. "A large bald spot right between his ears for two months. I can not magic hair to grow back and I refuse for myself or my son to be stripped bald. Hand them over."_

_"Hand what over?" Anna's voice grew sulky._

_"The scissors behind your back, you are so transparent the world can see through you."_

_"I am not! Fine…" _

_She huffed, thrusting them out like a sword. She must have been oblivious to the effect as she would never do anything to deliberately provoke his darker instincts. He kept his tension to himself, his son felt the hand in his head twitch ever so slightly and looked up at his father who was carefully sliding the tool between his primary and dress belt._

_"Daddy… are you feelin' OK?"_

_"Fine…" He blushed, for once embarrassed by his instinct that nearly made him pull a dagger from his belt at the sight of the 'attack'. "I am fine, just a little on edge."_

_"Oh."_

_"Come on." He scooped his son into his arms, the brown haired boy squealed in delight, his small hands finding a perfect hold on his hair. "Now… Don't hold on so tight…"_

X

"...ine thy blessings..."

Lloyd groaned, cracked an eye open, looked at the marble temple island thing around him. Colette was sleeping; it was an ill kept sleep, one that seemed so fragile that an ill placed breath would break it. He wanted to yell at whoever was talking to shut up, that they were going to wake Colette, but he didn't because yelling would wake her up. He let out an annoyed sigh, opened both eyes, and blinked. They were in the chapel, after the fight he hadn't remembered being moved or much of anything really, and little wonder he didn't remember being moved. Someone had wrapped him in a nest of blankets, and from the nasty taste in his mouth that same someone had rammed some potions down his throat.

Bleh, why did medicine always have to taste bad?

Well he knew why he needed the stuff, he felt all weak and twitchy. Yeah, that was the word, twitchy. He felt like his hands should be shaking, like he would be shaking, he was so tired and weak. He spotted Colette and Genis, both were curled up around Raine by the altar. Thoughtfully someone had set him away from the altar, so he didn't have to face it upon wakening. Lifting his head from his cocoon of blankets he leaned on one elbow, looked at his friends. They were all wreathed in silver light, the light of the angels that still enshrouded the alter, but someone was missing. Yawning, he turned to the water, to where the chants had come from and had suddenly fallen silent. Kratos was kneeling by the edge of the water several feet away, eyes closed. The man ceased the soft stream of words had fallen from his lips, stilled the un-gloved hand had seemed to pet the waters that lapped at the false banks of snow. Sparing a glance over his shoulder the man stared at him with his near black but somehow brown eyes.

"Good morning Lloyd."

Genis would have curled up and died, Colette would have fainted, and Raine would have been flabbergasted. Never did Kratos greet them, save for the occasional, "hurry up, we're leaving soon" he was even grouchy with Lloyd in the morning. Still while surprised the Iselian swordsman was not shocked speechless.

"'Morning."

"How are you feeling?"

Lloyd blinked, considered it, after all you didn't really consider how you were feeling until someone asked.

"I've been worse." Lloyd managed a slight grin. "But I think I've been better too."

"I certainly hope so." Kratos smiled slightly, not a lip smile, but with the ever so slight warming of the eyes. He stood, his cape stirring with every motion, in this utterly still and cold place motion caught the eyes because there was little color. The angel's light bleached out all the colors of the temple until only light and dark remained. Lloyd found himself missing the other colors, missing how they didn't hurt or weren't bleached out by the silver light, the whole world seemed lesser for being awash in only light.

"What were you doing?"

Kratos frowned, a troubled look touching his face. "Praying."

"Oh, so you do pray too." Lloyd nodded. "Don't worry, I wont tell Colette."

"That is not my main concern." Kratos stared at him with this pitying look that Lloyd decided he did not like. "I don't know what the greater disservice to you is, teaching you or leaving you alone."

"How could learning anything ever be bad?" Lloyd yawned, did so to hide his annoyance, because if he didn't and Kratos kept looking at him like _that_ Lloyd knew he was going to say something 'smart' and get in trouble.

"What do you really want to say Lloyden?" Kratos growled, sparing a moment to cross his arms over his bare chest and offer the younger man his firmest glare.

"How about you let me decide for once, instead of moping and thinking you let me pick what I want to learn and trust me to make some decisions about me." Lloyd grumbled, he was feeling sleepy agian, while part of him whined that he'd only just woken up the rest of him was going along with that sleepy feeling. "I mean _I_ am seventeen. And for the hundredth time, it's Lloyd, not Lloyden..."

"Go to sleep." Kratos dropped his fierce facade and favored him with a worried one. "You've had a rough time; sleep is the best healer for you."

Lloyd's only response was a quiet snore.

X

They went one at a time, the trip that had taken an hour ate up most of the day. Raine went first, then Colette, then Lloyd and finally Noishe. Only Kratos was in any state to row, Colette stared listlessly at the water, her eyes empty of even thought. Chilled Kratos had put some speed into her trip, and with her friends she seemed to recover, but she seemed withdrawn, distant. When left alone she became quiet, lost.

It was with some enjoyment he left her on the other bank and received a few hours respite from her troubled gaze.

"Do you think Colette's sick?" Lloyd wondered. Staring at the water as Kratos rowed them back to land.

"Perhaps she still feels a bit unwell from the angelic transformation." Kratos offered weakly, ordered himself to focus on what he was doing. "Plus if you consider the fact that the monster... attacked us all in that specific manner, she has had a trying time for her, emotionally and physically."

"Yeah..." Lloyd stared listlessly at the water. "What was that thing?"

"I don't know." Kratos admitted with a growl to his voice. "And I'll admit not knowing gets to me."

"Heh, end of world, you're talking like me."

Kratos smiled slightly, looked down at the boy who sat at his feet. Pale, tired, he looked almost ill. They had treated the poisons, had tended the wounds, he and Raine had spent a hellish few hours after the battle stimulating the children's immune systems, coaxing wounds to knit and forcing them all into a deep slumber. They'd slept off the worst of it, but none of them were up to a battle. They might as well have "bandit bait" written on their backs. Still, everything would be alright, he'd force it too if he had to.

He would protect his own no matter the cost.

"You seem to be picking up on my speech habits." Kratos said, letting paddle slide through water and push them forward. "That was a pre "hurmph" sound if I ever heard one."

"Shut up!" Lloyd growled. "I am not sounding like you... ung... Izoold!" Lloyd mimed getting sick.

"Izoold..." Kratos frowned then laughed quietly. "Ah yes, Izoold, now I remember. You do know black is a more dignified color then r-"

"As if, red's highly dog-no-fude... Err dig-no-find?"

"When you can say it, I shall consider what you said."

"Jerk!" Lloyd growled, but he sounded weary, exhausted. "No fair... you're smarter then me!"

"When you've been around as long as I have you pick up a few things." Kratos soothed. "You will learn, given time."

"You still gotta head start, so's not fair..." Lloyd grumbled.

"I will offer you all I have to teach, it is in your hands to take it. You can sleep if you wish, it will not slow me down."

Lloyd took the mercenary up on that offer with a sigh.

X

It was slow travel, a slow agonized travel broken with several rest stops. They traveled at a mere crawl for even Noishe for all his strength could not carry all the children plus everyone's packs all at once. So frail was the Chosen, so drained were the children of Iselia. It was the poison, contained, but it had made them dreadfully weak. The mercenary quietly skinned the rabbit he had killed, skewered it, and set the small animal on a make shift split. Colette shook her head, turned down the food, but much to his worry so too did Genis and Lloyd.

"My stomach's been hurting all day Raine." Genis whimpered. "I don't wanna eat."

Lloyd just curled up on his blankets and turned away from fire and food.

"What else hurts Genis." Raine muttered, putting a hand to her brother's head. "Goddess, you're burning up!"

"I'm fine Raine, we can't get sick cuz of the Regeneration..."

"Well the Regeneration is going to have to hold on a little, anyways you aren't the only one who's sick either if my guess is right.

Kratos put a hand over Lloyd's head, pointedly ignoring the boy's protests. The swordsman's brow was slicked with precipitation, the boy's pulse was slightly accelerated and there was a hint of a flush to his cheeks that screamed ill health.

"Your guess is right Ms. Sage."

Both adults looked to the Chosen.

"I feel fine, I'm just tired." Colette protested.

"How far to Asgard?" Raine sighed, hoping Colette would confess to being ill was much like hoping that gels and magic cure all potions would rain from the skies..

"We'll be at the pass tomorrow." Kratos frowned, to them he might of been thinking over the distance, but he was in truth trying to pick out signs form the children's conversation. Even knowing that they had a code it was too smoothed out for him to pick up the nuisances. Still they must have known, and they must have taken pains as a group to hide it. While useful this code had turned into an unwitting weapon that the children had turned on themselves. "It's a day's slow pace from there to Asgard."

"At our current pace?" Raine pressed.

"Two at most." The black clad mercenary sighed. "You're the scientist; do you know any medicinal plants around here that we could use?"

"A few," She looked at him, nodded as if reading something on his face she liked, and handed him something. "Here, take this book." She offered him a battered text that was small and could easily be taken with someone in their travels. He scanned the contents; it was all very detailed, offering picture and written description on the plants and preparation methods of the medicines.

"I shall be back in an hour with what I can find." Kratos pocketed the small text. "If trouble comes Noishe will come for me so you best unload his back so that he can come."

"We'll be stopping here for the night then?" Raine frowned. While travel would weaken them in a town she would have access to medicines, doctors...

"A three hours rest, then we move on. We dare not linger here."

Raine nodded; for once both adults were in full agreement.

X

Koton had tried to give them trouble. Kratos had brushed past her, put the statue in front of the old man and made some very specific threats about what part of Koton's anatomy the thing would be rammed up if they weren't allowed to look at he Book of Regeneration. Profane wasn't the right word, it wasn't strong enough, and she could think of no word to cover the amount of vile language the mercenary unleashed on the older man. Genis clapped his hands over his ears and Colette did so for herself with no prompting. Lloyd sat back and showed his very open appreciation of Kratos' swearword proficiency, and the teacher could see her pupil mentally taking notes.

"Lloyd, cover your ears."

"Why?" He whined at her, he whined quite a bit when sick and he was rather ill now so she expected the annoying grate to his tone.

She raised her hand and he meekly did as ordered.

Ill or well he was swiftly cowed by the threat of a Raine'ing.

Koton stared at the mercenary, in shock. It took a while for the old man to recover. When he did, Koton thrust his head forward on that skinny neck so that his beak like nose almost brushed up against Kratos'. If it was meant to be an intimidating motion it failed in its purpose.

"What's it get me, I got guards so you can' threaten me you young whiper sn-"

Kratos snatched the man's tunic, ignored the horrified squawk, Koton's arms flapped up and down, making the brown tunic rustle, the effect wasn't too dissimilar to a bird flapping their wings. In his whiny high pitched voice the elder human cried for help.

"I nearly lost someone I care for getting that statue." Kratos whispered in a lethal tone. "I nearly lost the skin on my hands when I picked it up."

Kratos grimly twisted the front of Koton's tunic.

"Now, I am being civil, I came into your home, gave you which you sought, and you have the gall to demand another statue when I fulfilled our bargain to the letter?"

Squealing Koton pounded his hands against Kratos' chest, crooked his slender fingers into claws and went for the eyes. Sneering the mercenary dropped the old man to the floor.

"Let us try uncivil, I take the book and you from this hut, I then set the premises on fire and we both watch as your life time of miser-ing goes up in smoke."

Koton sobbed, crawled on hand and knee to Kratos and begged him not to.

"_Please Kratos, don't hold back, twist the knife in his gut while you're at it._" Raine muttered to herself in elven, much to her shock the man flicked his gaze over her and for once there was a bit of humor in his expression. All humor died when the mercenary looked down at the groveling Koton.

"We have a pass." Kratos said, absently kicking off the old man. "We need to look at the book. Here are the rules, anytime, day, night, we get to look at this book, no charge. We get to use this route any time, no charges ever, is that understood worm?"

"Yes..." Koton whimpered.

"Good, now get up, your unseemly whining disturbs the Chosen."

"Th... the... Chosen?" Koton whimpered, his eyes going straight to Colette.

Raine wondered for a moment why no one ever thought she was the Chosen then dismissed that thought as Colette went to the tattered book and flipped through a few pages.

"Well?" Kratos growled.

"It's... a really big book Mr. Kratos, this is going to take a while..."

"Fine, if there are any problems I will be outside, call if... the residential vulture gives you any difficulties."

The vulture in question gulped and cringed back in abject terror and Kratos bared his teeth in what was most definitely not a smile.

X

A day, it seemed to blur due to the misery everyone was in. Kratos knew he was in vile humor, Colette seemed somber and worried, Genis was still sick and Lloyd was recovering but still feeling bad. What made them all miserable besides their private issues was Raine. Raine in "ruin mode" and they were taking her to a city of ruins. The water temple had been hell, a town of ruins, temples, calked up with historical events and sites went beyond hell. The twisted entity could not make a more horrid punishment, no demon, no demented god, could inflict greater pain upon him. There silence was an opportunity, their sickness and pains potential not to cause pain... Oh she wasn't a willing sadist. But it was still a brand of torment. He fell behind, joined Lloyd who was the tail of their group for once.

"Ears hurting?" The young man asked sympathetically.

"Head, ears, brain, everything." Kratos growled, rubbing his temples.

"Huh... You're a wizard right?"

Kratos spared the young swordsman a long look. "I dabble." He said at last.

"Couldn't you just..." Lloyd wiggled his fingers and Kratos sighed.

"If I could do you think I would have by now? My skill lies in wielding the elements as tools of destruction..." Lloyd's eyes were beginning to glaze, checking an annoyed sigh Kratos reiterated what he was saying in simpler terms. "Blowing them up if you will."

"Maybe if you did it just a tiny bit." Lloyd whimpered, "just an itty bitty bit? Not like the ranch by PalmaCosta," Lloyd added hastily. "But like a weaker version of a blowing up spell or something?"

Kratos rose an eyebrow.

"She came back here and quizzed me." Lloyd answered the unspoken question. He rubbed his head and Noishe craned his green neck over and licked the boy's face. "Sick even, and she quizzed me. Well I didn't do good, so when I'm feeling better she's going to take me to all the historical sites and lecture me."

Reaching out Kratos touched the young man's shoulder, gripped the boy and offered what sympathy he could. It was a pale comfort in the face of the horror of being lectured by Raine whilst she was in the dreaded "ruin mode".

"Please Kratos, you have to help me." Lloyd whispered eyes filled with terror. "I'm so dead if she quizzes me! She'll "Raine" me into next year, she "Raine's" like nuts when she's nuts! I'll do anything!" Lloyd whimpered.

Kratos' lips quirked ever so slightly.

"Anything?"

"Anything! Nothing you could do would be worse than Raine!" Lloyd whimpered.

"Alright, when we get to Asgard we'll talk." Kratos' eyes flicked over to the Professor who was happily describing the city of ruins and it's various tours and museums. She was already making plans to see every one of them in less then a weeks time, and she was going to drag them all with her. Once they were healthy enough that is. "It might be that we both need to pull an extended disappearing act." Kratos murmured, a worried light in his night dark eyes.

"Is it ever going to stop?" Lloyd shivered. "The ruin mode, is there a stop to it?"

"When we do not go to ruins I suppose we will not see it." Kratos squeezed the young man's shoulder part in jest part in utter seriousness. "Just ride it out, take a deep breath, it will be over soon enough. A week, two weeks here at most, two more seals, then you'll never have to endure another bout of ruin mode ever again."

"You don't have to tell her this..." Lloyd whispered. "But she _scares_ me when she's like this."

"You don't have to tell anyone this." Kratos said after a long silence. "But she scares _me _when she loses all of her self control. I know enthusiasm, I know interest, and I know obsession, her mania seems to be a mix of all three that some how goes far beyond the definitions of all three in raw intensity."

"So in short, she's scary."

"Yes." Kratos sighed. "Very much so."

X

"Sparring?" Raine protested. "Again?"

Kratos nodded, his hand clenched around the hilt of his sword. It had been two days since they reached Asgard, two nights they had rested at "The Breeze" and it would be another two before they could leave the city. There was some ritual going on, some ceremony, and one not to miss a historic event Raine was going to make them all attend. He could not talk Raine out of making them sit through that ordeal, so he held his peace and gambled for what escapes he could. Lloyd was in truth in no shape to spar, still sick the boy and him were not sparing, not with blades anyways. He was offering a gentled version of history, laying off the more religious laced themes and cutting into the heart of the mater. Or rather matters, as they were wrapping up the foundation of PalmaCosta Government and Law lectures and going into how those influenced the neighboring town's laws.

"It keeps us out of your hair does it not?" Kratos pointed out, stroking the hilt of his blade.

"Lloyd could be greatly benefiting from..."

"Ms. Sage, let us be honest with each other for once." Kratos sighed, leaned against the wooden door frame and looked about her room. "He's not benefiting from a bloody thing you say."

Soft greens covers served as curtains and covered the rooms twin beds. The room was covered with pastel hues, pale airy colors covered the pillows, the bed, and the night stand, pale ghost colors made up the rug upon the floor and the carpeting that coated the wooden floors. It was a stark contrast to the dark hued door frame and wood frame, certainly the dark brown, almost black, wood served to cover the walls as it did the frames. But someone, long ago, painted the walls an off shade of white. He despised the airiness, it made the room seem illusion. He despised illusion, perhaps that was what the main problem was.

Having so many of your own private illusions shattered, it just did that to you, made you hate all illusion.

"He's learning." Raine protested.

"He hates every second of it than he tones you out for half of it and sleeps through the other half." Kratos snapped.

"Where he doesn't with you?" Raine growled.

"I tailor my lectures to his taste, I ease into things slowly instead of going with the belief that you hold that he is thick and that by ramming every scrap of knowledge down his throat he might magically not become an idiot." Kratos snapped, gave the woman a glare brimming with hostility.

She met fire for fire as the saying went, there was a long tense silence. Colette drifted by the room, her scent tickled his nostrils as her cheerful humming brushed against his ears. She passed him, went down the hall a ways, but was in both their ear shot.

"Hey Colette, have you seen Kratos?"

"Oh he's in Raine's room; they're both giving each other the "death glare"." Colette chirped, and then lost some of her cheer. "I bet Mr. Kratos is mad because we aren't going right to the next seal."

"Huh," Lloyd made a noise; it was as if he was annoyed with them for how they were acting. "Well we aren't going until Genis is feeling better." Lloyd said with a hint of steel in his voice. "I'll talk to Kratos about it..."

"And I'll talk to Raine." The Chosen chirped. "We make a great team huh?"

"Yeah, of course we do Colette." Lloyd chuckled. "I couldn't have off pulled half those pranks in Iselia without your help."

"That was fun wasn't it... fourth day..." Colette giggled.

"Hey, no ruining it, we keep it secret even from each other." Lloyd scolded, but there was a warm note to his voice that took all the bite from his words. "So just the death glare?"

"Un huh."

"I can't believe that Genis thought that the Professor and Kratos _liked_ each other..." Lloyd's shudder was easily imagined and made a wonderful compliment to the tone that "liked" was said in.

"I think they do, they're just friends and don't realize it yet."

"Listen to Kratos whine about Raine and then you'd know how much they hate each other." Lloyd grumbled.

"Genis said the same thing." Kratos could almost see the girl frown in worry. "It's not like you and Ivan is it?"

"Not that bad." Lloyd sighed. "Not yet anyways."

"Well that's good, you know I bet they will be friends sometime."

"I don't mind if they become friends." Lloyd said after a long pause. "But like I said before, boyfriend-girlfriend is just.. Ung!"

"I think it'd be cute."

"Like Genis said... dogs are cute, Noishe's cute, Kratos and Raine together _is_ not cute, it's scary."

There was a creek of the hall door opening, the footsteps faded deeper into the inn, perhaps to tromp down stairs and head top the dinning areas. Both adults stared at each other, identical expressions of horror on their faces.

"So that's..." Raine sat down, luckily she was by the bed and she could sit on that. "They thought that... they _think_ that..."

"I feel very ill." Kratos said at last, he swallowed on the surge of nausea that the idea brought; he slumped weakly against the frame and stared at nothing in particular.

"For once we have the exact same thoughts." Raine shivered. "For the record I have no interest, I'd rather die before I..."

"Agreed." Kratos whispered. "I don't know what I find more appalling, the genealogical consequences of such an action, or the fact that they honestly worried that we might be a couple."

"No wonder Genis had such horrible nightmares." Raine muttered, for once the mercenary took no insult, though there were plenty of interpretations of those words that could make them an insult.

"Indeed." Kratos cocked his head to the side, considered something for a few moments. "I have an apprentice to tutor." The mercenary bowed his head to her. "Good day Ms. Sage."

"So, you are taking him as an apprentice?" Raine stood, was going to head out with him it seemed.

"No, I have no right to be a teacher to anyone. It is merely a way to explain what I am to him to someone who could never understand. It is a... conventual term that others would ascribe to our situation."

Raine favored him with a questioning expression; it was one that Kratos did not respond to. He told her nothing, gave her nothing that she could take as a response, merely turned on his heel and left.

X

The winds were gentle to the skin, a soft caress. His skin tingled at the benevolent motion that rose from the earth with a hint of heat. A deep breath confirmed that the winds carried the scent of flowers that were still green by the spring rains. All the flora was in there prime, the plains of Balacruf were a green ocean whose crests were white, yellow, and blue specks. The winds were forever in motion, an omni-present sigh across the earth that raced across the plains and brought the scent of flowers to the small cliff side, archaeological obsessed community of Asgard. It was a shame that so many were in caves, studying paintings, swindling tourists and scientists alike with over rated over priced inns and goods. He took a deep breath to better take in the scents, the only sound was the snap of his cape unfurling to the wind's playful tugs and whipping up behind him.

Laying on his back, the blades of grass tickling him, Lloyd stared at the wisps of cloud above. The young man seemed to like the feeling of the wind passing over him, Kratos preferred to stand into it, let it pick up his cape and pull his hair out of his eyes. His whole body shivered under the sensation of the wind, it was a presence in the plains, a living entity that seemed entirely focused on play.

"This place is pretty neat huh?" Lloyd said at last, a hint of sleepiness in his tone.

"Yes, it is."

They needed no other words for a long time. Lloyd was content to watch the skies where he was happy enough to stare at the shivering blades of grass. Finally Lloyd turned his head, so that he looked at him, half obscured by the tangled lines of green, framed in green, Lloyd rested one cheek against the soft earth, stared at him with sleep glazed eyes.

"The birds have it good here. With all the wind they just have to jump into the sky and they're up and away."

Kratos said nothing, closed his eyes and just enjoyed the feeling of freedom, though bound to earth there was something uplifting about the breezes, something that tugged at his soul.

"If a person can learn to fly…" Lloyd whispered, more to himself then anyone else. "Then this would be the place."

"Yes, this would be the perfect place."

"I wonder, if the wind lives here?" Lloyd asked it seemed the air more then him.

"There is a small island, long ago it was the… a natural extension of this half of the continent, but the slender path was broke in twain by a horrible battle long ago. There is now a crypt to ancient kings, but it is said, that in times long before our own it was a cavern where all the winds came home. They rush from their earthen confines the three spirits of the winds and split into all direction covering the length and width of the world in their restless travels. Here though is there home, here they are sacred and revered. They say that those who lived here once used the winds to travel across the plains, that they made use of the flatness and the breezy weather to go from place to place."

"I wonder how they did that."

"I once saw… a picture in a museum, of a long slender boat, with wings, wheels, and a monstrous sail."

"Woah! That would be so cool! Do you think people make them now?"

"I doubt it, not with the dragon riders about, nor with the spike in monster population."

"Oh…" Lloyd laughed, "You know Dad told me once humans weren't suppose to fly. 'Cuz of how we were made and stuff, only birds, bugs, and bats fly. After all they have wings and we don't."

Kratos opened his dark eyes, flicked his gaze over to the young man who was moving to sit up.

"What about angels, aren't they people with wings?"

"Dad didn't know about angels having wings and well... he didn't think they'd work because the pictures made them look so small."

"Ah." Kratos' smile was an interesting mix of light and dark humor. "Well that might be a problem, shorter wings and the physical structure of a human…. Humans aren't aerodynamic creatures, so I imagine that coupled with the shortness of the primary feathers… angels like Remial would have some trouble flying."

"Aero-die-nom-ick?"

"Capable of flight, suited for it."

"Oh." The wind shivered about them, brushed past them, always carrying the fragrance of wet grass. Lloyd breathed it in, bent his legs and rested his chin upon his knees. Children took that pose when they rested, Kratos winced at the sight. They were all children, innocent children lost in this theological morass. "You know I feel kinda sorry for the angels."

"Really?" Kratos stared at the young man, startled, this was something that even Kratos found a little hard to hear said. Still difficult things must be said, must be expressed, so he gave the boy a verbal nudge. "Why?"

"Well… They only do one thing, they protect or watch over people and they never get to leave those chapels. That's not something you do to a person, make them be one thing and only one thing, you do that to match-tins… like those floating red light nose things at the Ranch."

"Machines." Kratos corrected. "Non-living but active creatures are either called un-dead or machines. Since they weren't a pile of bones or rotting flesh, since they were constructed of metal, they would be called machines."

"Oh," Lloyd laughed. "How'd you get so smart?"

"Experience."

"You like that word way too much."

"The favor you show of dragging out words like "way" is ill suited to the image of an adult."

"Huh?"

"It sounds very childish."

"Oh, whatever."

Kratos growled softly at being flippantly told that his opinion didn't matter but he kept any biting rebuttals behind his teeth. Frowning at the sky Lloyd seemed to be deeply in thought, mulling something over. The mercenary hesitated, merely stared at the young man for a long moment and something in his gaze must have told Lloyd the question.

"I think that there needs to be a bit of red, right over there." Lloyd pointed to a random spot in the sky.

"Only Aska colors the sky, the sun catches his forever shifting colors on the tips of his wings at the end of his flight and stains the clouds and heavens with their hue."

"I'll make you a bet." The Iselian swordsman grinned at his elder. "I can get color in the sky and you..." Lloyd paused for dramatic effect. "Eat a tomato if you lose!"

Kratos shuddered at the horrid threat then considered something. "If I win you pay double my penalty of losing."

"Two tomatoes?" Lloyd gasped, horror shining in his eyes and squeezing his throat till it came out as a squeak.

"If you are confident take the bet, if not then don't."

"I'm not gunna lose." Lloyd growled, never one to turn down any form of challenge. "Hey if I get more then one color up would you eat spaghetti?"

"Lloyd, if you can get one color up and keep it up for five minuets before dinner tonight I will take your friends to one of the restaurants, pay for everyone's meal out of my pocket, and eat a bowl of spaghetti."

"You're on!"

"If you lose, you will be paying, and you will be eating that spaghetti, however that is not all of it, you will…"

"Not a problem, I'm so not going to lose."

"_You will_ upon defeat drop all your classes with Ms. Sage and serve as my apprentice for… a week."

"An apprentice?"

"More intense swords work and I will be taking charge of all your schooling for that time."

"_More_ intense swords work." Lloyd shivered. "How can it get any more intense then it… Alright, fine, man I can't lose now. Hey more then one color you're _my_ apprentice for a week, just so it evens out."

"You are chasing an impossibility Lloyd, quit while you still have some dignity left."

"Hey, nothing's impossible, well see ya in a bit, hope you like spaghetti Kratos!" With a laugh Lloyd ran off.

He waited until the boy had a chance to get out of hearing range then broke out into a case of laughter. Still laughing Kratos decided to lie down and watch the sky and clouds roll on by.

X

Colette blinked when Lloyd asked to use some long ribbons. With her blessing he took a long blue ribbon, a green ribbon, and a purple ribbon, then ran out of the room with a wide grin on his face. He nearly ran Raine over while he was on his way to a cloth merchant.

"What's wrong with Lloyd?" Raine asked her golden haired pupil, the Chosen looked up at her elven instructor and smiled.

"Lloyd and Kratos made a bet." Colette chirped. "If Lloyd can make colors in the sky Kratos is buying us dinner."

"That's not all!" Genis laughed evilly, a ream of paper and a lead tipped writing stick tucked between the pages. "If Lloyd wins Kratos is Lloyd's servant for a week. I'm helping him but I need to use your notes on those different specie of avian monsters which attacked us."

Raine felt as if her eyebrows were going to make a home in her hair. She'd never imagined she'd hear about Kratos loosening up to make a bet, much less one with this magnitude. She struggled with the idea, she knew Lloyd and Kratos were friendly towards each other, that the man tried to help the boy, but making a playful bet? Being playful? She couldn't imagine the mercenary sinking as low as to play or relax, he seemed one of those types who didn't know what play or ease meant.

"Making colors in the sky." Raine frowned. "That's impossible, it's not as if the sky were some great dome that with only a large enough ladder and paints you could change their color."

"I told him that," Genis snorted. "You know Lloyd, when he gets an idea… I don' know why he isn't making a ladder or something right now, but I hope he wins."

"Oh Lloyd will win, he told me what he's going to do." Colette chirped. Raine turned to her pupil, and her gaze was enough to encourage the abswer to her unspoken question. "He said since he couldn't get up to pain the sky and since bringing the sky down to paint didn't sound good he was going to bring the color to the sky with the wind."

The dor to the inn burst open, ignoring the annoyed innkeeper Lloyd charged past them lengths of fabric in hand, a wide grin on his face.

"Hi guys, I'm busy see ya in a bit!"

They all watched as Lloyd took the stairs three at time, then when his heavy footsteps faded away Raine sighed.

"I just wish, just once, that he'd show a fraction of this interest in his studies…"

X

"I call it a sky sail, what do you think?"

Lloyd proudly displayed what to them looked like a trapezoid covered in green and white fabric. The cloth was draped over a set of crossed sticks very thing crossed sticks that where held together with a web of sewing thread and yarn. Sporting a ribbon tail at its longer, and lower section, it was a strange sight. Even more so when you considered the spool of yarn that hung from Lloyd's hand. Noishe cocked his head, sniffed the contraption and whined. He was obviously insulted that his companionship was so poor during their walks that Lloyd had made a cloth version of him.

"This is…" Raine tried to smile encouragingly but was fighting laughter. "But Lloyd you can't paint the sky with this… _interesting_ device."

Genis wasn't being as civil, as he was chuckling quite openly, mockingly congratulating the swordsman for paying attention during the elementary geometry lecture.

"Laugh all you want." Lloyd huffed. "It's going to work."

"How do you think it will work?" Kratos was not snickering, seemed interested in the boy's thought behind the sky sail, though his tone said louder then words that he felt himself safe from losing the bet.

"You ever watch birds fly, when they don't flap their wings they freeze them and fly without flapping?"

"It's called gliding." Kratos corrected. "Such a tactic saves energy, and the bird may use the winds and thermals to gain altitu…" The mercenary went pale, stared at the device with a hint of worry on his face.

"You bird watch?" Raine gave the man her most disbelieving look possible.

"Something like that… Let's see this sky sail of yours work then Lloyd, you've piqued my curiosity."

"How do you expect that to fly?" Genis snickered. "Lloyd this is almost as bad as the time that you made that cape and tied feathers to it then jumped down the gully's side."

"I only did that once!"

"Then you tried the fans, then the blanket, then the…"

"Genis, shut it!"

"All I'm saying Lloyd is I don't know what your obsession is with flying but I'll tell you it's impossible. Human's can't fly."

"I'm not flying. It's going to fly for me."

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you."

"It'll work, I trust Lloyd." Colette chirped.

"Colette, he's trying to defy a natural law, he's going against the impossible that the smartest people in the world have tested again and again."

"Well…" Colette considered it. "_Lloyd_ hasn't tested it…"

"Colette, Lloyd has a five percent in Raine's physical science class I don't think…"

"Genis Sage have you been in my grade book again?" Raines expression promised instant death.

"Five percent?" Kratos' voice became lethal and Lloyd gulped.

"Ah… I'm gunna walk it now…" Lloyd then proceeded to flee the older swordsman's glare of death at a trot. At first the device scraped along the ground, then as the string went taunt and the wind caught under its "wings". It flew only a few steps behind Lloyd, the sticks creaked alarmingly at another gust of wind, but the cloth flared out and the thing strained against the very tight leash that Lloyd was holding on it. Slowly as he ran the thing would do a kind of hic-up. It would drop as Lloyd gave it more slack, then the swordsman's run and a gust of wind would make it shoot up. It bobbed up and down then finally just kept going up.

"Oh wow… The sky is a different color!" Colette squeaked. "Isn't it pretty?"

Raine gapped, Genis stopped breathing, they all stared at the strange thing as it broke one of the main unspoken rules that there society held. Only birds and angels flew, only sacred things were capable of flight.

"Amazing," Kratos whispered. "Simple but effective…"

"THERES A FEW OTHERS BY MY STUFF!" Lloyd yelled to them, he was some ways away yes, but did he have to be that loud?

Rubbing his temples Kratos watched as Genis and Colette snatched up two of the gaudy sky sails and went to running. Soon several other "colors" were added to the sky.

"How does defeat taste Kratos?" Raine murmured as she passed him, picking the last sky sail for herself.

"Distinctly odd." Kratos answered, but she wasn't there to hear it, as she began her run to get her color into the sky. He sat upon the soft grass and watched the playful swooping and diving of the colors then flinched as a thought came to him. Did he honestly have enough gald to cover the cost of feeding them all? Knowing Lloyd's insatiable appetite Kratos began to worry that he did not.

X

He felt sick, had gotten sick already, but prayed that he would not be ill yet again tonight. From his window he could see the rocky trails that cut through the town of Asgard. A dull grey vein, streaked with the silver moonlight. It was hardly moving, but then stone hardly moved, and stone and the secrets upon it were normally more stable then most other substances. Behind him, on a bed, sprawled out in a way that only the young could manage was Lloyd, taking up all the bed despite that being a physical could. Still the boy managed it somehow, breaking yet another rule. Running a hand through his auburn locks Kratos watched the world below, they had taken the second story rooms, Kratos was of two minds of the situation. While the rooms did offer a superior view and prevented easy access to the occupants within there straits would be bad if a would-be arsonist came and took a favoring to this inn. Plus the price, he winced recalled the shoddily made rooms at the Vortex. Despite years of hard living and going to a few of the more seedy sides of various towns Kratos had dug his heels in and said no. It was unclean, filthy really, and he pitied the poor souls who had to make do with such poor accommodations.

Which was why instead of paying the sum of fifty gald a room they were shelling out two hundred.

"No place like Asgard encourages people to camp outside of a town." He whispered to the night, dragging that old quote from the dust choked alleys of his mind. They had come out of his own sire's mouth long ago when Kanion Aurion had been a mercenary soldier long long ago. "Some things never change, if they aren't over pricing the food and value of their ruins then there snatching ever coin form you with the rooms." Lips curling in a bitter smile Kratos looked down upon the path, startled to see Raine and Colette indulging in a late night stroll. He could not blame the women however, being surrounded by men –alright one man and two boys- must be a strain on their female sensibilities.

Recalling how hyper Genis had been after having that slice of sugared apple pie Kratos could not find it in his heart to be annoyed at their lack of thought to safety, not in the slightest.

Still it was his job as her body guard to escort and protect the Chosen.

Not tonight though, it was not needed tonight, there was a feeling of stillness, as if the world were holding its very breath, waiting. This was a moment of peace, a span of quiet. Leaning against the frame, little more then a shadow to those who bothered to look up, he stared down at the town of Asgard, its iron grey flecks upon the tan back of road. It blurred under his unblinking gaze, became muddied, as did his thoughts of future, present, and past tangle amongst themselves more surely then the Chosen's feet did during a run.

X

"What is this ceremony that you want us to see?" Kratos sipped the coffee in his hands, the contents of the cup were rather weak and watery, but then if you wanted the best coffee you bought it in Triet.

"It's to commune with the spirit of wind." Raine explained, she frowned, it was only them for once and she was not at all comfortable talking to the mercenary when they were alone. "The residents here worship and revere it as one of Martel's lesser messengers." Raine sipped her coffee, her eyes shinning with a hint of ruin mania. "During Cleo the…"

"Ms. Sage, stop."

Raine looked the man, startled when he shuttered.

"Do not lecture me upon the history of the ages past, I have no interest in it, all I wanted to know was what the people here did. That is all."

"You have little intellectual curiosity."

Kratos favored her with a long stare, there was a hint of mockery in it, it might have been the way is eyes gleamed or the slight tilt of the head, but there was mockery to it she was certain.

"Perhaps, how is your brother?"

"Better, a little pale, but fine."

"Well enough for travel?"

"Mr. Aurion, this ploy is more transparent then glass. Obviously Lloyd has sent you down here with plans to encourage us to leave…"

"The boy's presence has no influence upon me Ms. Sage." Kratos took a second to sip his glass, he allowed his eyes to slide shut as the course yet weak liquid slid over his tongue. "No one influences me save me, and this is no ploy. The Regeneration can not wait, not for long."

"_The world is dying._" Raine quoted the man from several nights ago.

Kratos did not respond, merely sipped his drink and said nothing to her for the rest of that morning. He did not speak when Genis came down the stairs and sat besides her with a bowl of porridge in hand, only nodded to Colette, he was for all intents and purposes mute until Lloyd joined them.

"Good morning, Lloyd."

Lloyd mumbled something under his breath, yawned, stretched, and shuffled off after a maid so he could get his order.

Still, that was three more words then Kratos normally spoke in the mornings.

Raine frowned, picked at her toast, and wondered in morbid curiosity if the mercenary would speak to any of them if Lloyd were not about. She considered the sketchy conversation attempts with Genis and Colette in a whole new light, considered the ultimatum that Lloyd had thrown in Kratos' face, in front of them all. They were his friends, Lloyd counted herself, her brother, and Colette as his closest friends, and if Kratos wanted to stay on Lloyd's good side he better not be a jerk to them. Lloyd then had offered the mercenary a taste of what being on his "bad side" meant. Silence, evasions when forced into conversation, Lloyd had given the mercenary one sharp bitter taste of an equally harsh brew and the desperation in the mercenary…

No one had noticed on their first visit to Koton, Genis, Colette were far too innocent to see much less understand…

She had watched the agony writhe across Kratos' face when the man imagined no one was watching. She had seen the unchecked fury that was wielded at the monsters they encountered at that time. The man had a dichotomous personality. Severe, harsh, brutal, cold, that was the side he showed the world, but under that, rarely glimpsed and spent on Lloyd was a kind, compassionate, and needing half. When Lloyd had denied that emotional warmth, that which he normally freely offered… Kratos had chilled her with how he had fallen into animal, no monstrous, rages. Luckily he'd had enough control to point it at the creatures around them.

Goddess Martel, help us if he ever loses control over that rage. Raine could easily imagine him demolishing towns and butchering everyone around him to slake his anger. The images that came to her mind were enough to make her lose her appetite. She set the toast aside.

"Are you feeling OK Professor?" Lloyd asked.

"I'm fine dear, I have a bit on my mind."

A dark bit, a heavy burden that only knowledge could bring. A chill of foreboding caressed her spin. Lloyd liked Kratos, as a friend, was as free and comfortable with the man as he was with Genis. He couldn't possible be entertaining the idea of including Kratos into his oath. The very idea made Raine want to yell "no", snatch her pupils, and bolt.

Lloyd had coaxed Kratos into some semi-balance of civil conversation, had talked Genis and Colette out and was now all but yanking teeth to make the mercenary talk. Finally the mercenary picked up the hints that Lloyd was not going to fall quiet and they both chatted about swords.

Seeing Kratos' animation, seeing the man act as a normal person would, was a shock. Even after seeing this cycle unfold before her time and time again it still was a surprise. Who knew lengths of sharpened steel could be so interesting?

As a healer she knew something of scars. The making was an agony, a searing hot pain as flesh was ripped open, it's sancity and wholeness violated by an inanimate thing, and as the hurts healed they hurt, and after they ached and became a mark of pain borne. Kratos must have lost everything, nearly died from whatever had happened to him, for him to be this emotionally withdrawn. And Lloyd must resemble the man's son very much to make Kratos warm to him so fast.

She wondered, did Lloyd understand this some how, certainly it was too advanced a concept for the boy to grasp intellectually, but had his instincts perhaps given him some more basic insight on all of this?

"Whatever old man, two beats one in numbers if nothing else."

"For the hundredth time boy, you could hold a sword in each hand, one in the mouth, and one a foot, and while formidable looking you wouldn't be able to do much of anything. One sword is by far…"

"If you lose a sword you're unarmed, I have a spare."

"A skilled swordsman never loses his weapon, nor is he never unarmed. My shield is as much weapon as it is a tool of defense."

"But if you lost your sword you'd be in trouble."

"I have a knife, throwing and fighting knives."

"Which are just shorter spare swords!" Lloyd pointed out triumphantly.

"However you use both weapons simultaneously where if I bothered to carry another sword I would not."

"Because you're too old to learn a new fighting style…" Lloyd taunted.

"Pardon?" Kratos rose an eyebrow, oozing a dangerous calm that made the air all but crackle with contained tension. "If you refer to adopting a style that is so lacking defensively anyone with a bow could defeat you…"

"Hey I can block arrows!"

Kratos snorted. "One, two at the most, my shield on the other hand can block many more then that small number."

Seeing that the men were busy talking Noishe helped himself to the remains of Kratos' breakfast. Happily lapping up porridge while the swordsmen talked shop the dog began to purr. Kratos looked down, looked at the tan ring around Noishe's jaws and at his empty porridge bowl. Looking up, tail a-wag, Noishe quickly licked his lips while they all stared at him in total shock. The green dog set his paws on the table, and with a delicate nip took the plate covered with egg, bacon, and toast right out form under Lloyd and padded off.

"Hey, get back here!" Lloyd shoved back the chair and ran after his dog. "That's my breakfast you jerk!"

"That is not a dog." Genis said slowly.

"Of course Noshy's a dog." Colette chirped. "He's just really smart for a dog, that's all."

"If he's a dog then I'm a human."

"But then you wouldn't have pointy ears Genis, so that can't be right!"

"Give that back you thief!"

"Grrrr!"

"It's mine, my food, I gave you your breakfast already you…"

There was a clatter and a thud. Plate had been dropped and by the cries of animal and human pain there was a wrestling match going on. A few moments passed, then Lloyd came back, or rather limped back into their range of sight. He had a wad of yellow in his hair and a disgruntled look upon his face. Slowly he picked out the bit of egg, then with a growled, "I'm going to use the pump outside first" excused himself from their presence and the inn.

X

Head sopping wet, he was cold. The omnipresent winds weren't helping him get warm. He shivered, hunched in his mock mercenary garb since the thick black clothes were warmer. Color, Kratos had explained it, the color black attracted light, dark devoured light, lured it to itself and engulfed it. Light produce heat, could warm as well as fire, fire was quicker but warmth was warmth. He wrapped the slender cloak's halved around his arms, they were good for that, worked as well as the arm sheathes that Kratos wore, and were as good as long sleeve shirts.

"You look miserable." Kratos murmured, the young swordsman had taken refuge with the older man as Raine was less prone to quizzing him with the mercenary about.

"Ruins all around and Raine with us, nothing can be worse then this."

"Things can always be worse."

"They could be better." Lloyd growled.

"Could they? Do not be greedy Lloyd, take what is given you and enjoy it."

"Why are you in such a weird mood today?"

"Something I heard in the inn… something is wrong here and I can't put my finger on it as of yet." Kratos frowned. "I need some time to think, while I normally would like your company I do my best thinking alone."

"Alright…" Lloyd sighed, then gathering his courage looked to Raine who was hugging a pillar and making squeaking noises. Genis was shielding his eyes with a hand and Colette was laughing in joy. "Do I have too?"

"What's wrong now?" Kratos growled, lifting his gaze, he stared at Raine for a long moment then put a hand over his face. "My God something happened to her, she must have been dropped or something…"

"Several times." Lloyd added.

Kratos' lips quirked into a warm smile, he ruffled Lloyd's hair. "Be brave." He said. Then with a firm shove to the small of his back Kratos sent Lloyd staggering in Raine's direction. He didn't know what shocked him most, the hair ruffle (only Genis and Noishe did that and only sometimes), the shove, or the words. His feet decided the shove was it, cuz he tripped. He spared a venomous glance at Kratos but the man's head was bowed and his eyes distant. Whatever was wrong, it must have been big, normally Kratos saw everything.

"Ouch…"

"Ah Lloyd could you answer the question?"

She was lecturing and hugging old rocks… Lloyd had heard of some malosooum. Now _that_ wasn't the right name! Oh well, Kratos had dryly called it a place where they stored dead people and old stuff, Lloyd deided there and then that the under world would freeze over before they even mentioned the place to Raine.

"I fell, I wasn't answering…" He muttered to the ground. "Umm what did you say Professor?"

"What type of stone is this glorious wonderful monument made of?"

"Ummm…" Lloyd frowned at the rock. "Granite?"

"Very good, I'm glad you were paying attention."

"Yah Lloyd you got a question right!" Colette cheered him on.

"He wasn't paying attention he just guessed." Genis protested.

"That doesn't mean he got the question wrong right?"

"Well…" Genis sighed. "I guess not but…"

Good thing Kratos was off thinking and Raine was all Ruin nutty or he'd have been in trouble. Lloyd watched as Raine began to baby talk a pillar, a paper and charcoal piece in hand. OK she wanted to try to do transfers on a windy place, fine, but he was not going to be bored out of his mind enough to watch. Genis and Colette began to talk about history so Lloyd decided to stay away from them… But that left Kratos, who seemed intent on glaring a hole into the earth.

Noishe unfortunately was at the inn, being papered by the innkeeper's daughter, and Lloyd'd get seen if he tried to run off…

Spotting a bit of movement on the other side of the monument Lloyd decided what the heck, he'd check it out, anything was better then this.

X

"If we bl…"

"But that mi…"

There was a long silence.

"Hey what are you doing here!"

"Shh you'll call the rest of them ov..."

"Lloyd what are you doing over there?"

"They were talking about blowing up the ruin Pro-"

"WHAT!"

Kratos decided to pull his cloak up a bit to muffle the sounds of the beating that followed. There were several specks of white on the steps leading up; they had a little bit of time before those people came and despite what Colette might think they were not friendly. People with pitchforks and torches, while stereotypical of evil mobs, were made into a stereotype for a reason. Kratos could not imagine them coming up to invite them to a dance or a few friendly games of cast the pitchfork into the bale of hay. Nor did he imagine that they were going to be asked nicely to leave the premises.

"Hi Mr. Kratos, what are you looking at?" Colette chirped, then frowned at the people in white down below. "Oh see their hats they have little crosses on them!" Colette decided to enlighten him. "That means their priests! He-"

Kratos clapped a hand over the girl's mouth before she called down to them that they'd be happy to see them. He half dragged half escorted the confused girl to the small silver haired boy.

"Pointy ears, we have company coming, fetch your sister."

"P… pointy…"

"I apologize, habit, now hurry up, it's going to be dangerous in a few moments and I'd like to avoid killing if at all possible."

Colette stopped protesting and Genis nodded and ran off.

"Mr. Kratos they're priests, they won't hurt us."

"Move," Kratos snarled, giving her a slight shove. His instincts were screaming at him, he drew his sword and seeing that she was going to protest farther grabbed her arm and dragged her behind him. "You may be uncomfortable Chosen, but you will be alive, which is all that matters at the moment. I will butcher everyone in every town if I must to keep you safe, would you add these people who are coming to those who must die?"

She came, stopped fighting and didn't start again when he paused for a moment to work his shield off of his back and strap it to his arm.

X

"Oh sweet Goddess, the high priest, we have to run Harley!"

"I'm coming." The pointy eared man growled, he gave Raine a long hard look. "This "artifact"..." The pointey eared man spat. "Stands only to be stained red; I'm not letting Aisha die on this thing no matter what you want."

"I don't understand what you are talking about."

"Of course you wouldn't." The man snapped. "Outsiders don't get it; you get in our way next time you don't get out in one piece." Winding a length of grey cloth over his head the purple vested man ordered the indigo haired man besides him to do the same.

"But it's going to mess up my glasses..."

"Linar, do you want to _maybe_ lose the glasses or _probably_ be killed?"

"I'm working it on..."

"You don't understand what you are destroying, the historical…"

"Not now!" Lloyd hissed, "There are priests coming."

"I imagine that they will be logical and understanding…"

"They don't look very logical and understanding." Genis whimpered. "They look mad."

The two pointy eared men were climbing down the huge steps behind them, the ones not paved or put with normal steps to make it easier. Following Lloyd's gaze Kratos nodded and snatching an arm from each female present dragged them to the first "step" down and ordered them to climb or else.

"Kratos we can trust…"

"I don't trust anyone. Now climb Chosen, or I'll throw you down and you can fly back up if you are so set upon it."

Genis who kept watch paled and made a squeaking noise of terror. Lloyd joined the small elf, crouched besides the edge of the monolith and stared at the red clad man leading the priests. He recognized the metal sheathed arm anywhere.

"Oh crap, it's Lych! Tell Kratos, run."

That would be quite a feat, and Lloyd didn't expect Genis to be able to get down two of those huge several foot sized steps and tell Kratos then have the man climb up and give him orders. The voices were getting closer, Lloyd gripped the hilts of his swords, his arms began to hurt, the scars began to throb.

Footsteps drew closer, he shivered, they'd see him, they were too close and they'd see him if he ran, they'd see the others. He was trapped. Gathering the last of his courage Lloyd let go of his swords, stood and stepped out from behind the pillar, he had the pleasure of seeing Lych's eye's double in size.

"Hey Lych, how's it been?" Lloyd grinned, doing his best Ivan impersonation, oozing arrogance and confidence that he was not feeling.

"You… you're uhh desecrating an alter to the Goddess with your presence heretic, in the name of the Chosen and as the Chosen's friend I demand you pay."

Someone had curled up with their holy text and studied. Lloyd mentally laughed at that, and the ex-sphere sent a bit of warmth through him, gave him a bit of real confidence. He'd been training with Kratos a while now, several weeks, he had to be better, Lych was too arrogant to bother training, wasn't the type for it…

Lloyd wanted to ask the stone where it learned that but kept his mouth shut.

After all crazy people who talked to stones in their hands weren't going to be trusted and they would be watched, which was what he didn't want.

"This is an altar?"

"Yes," the old man in white bristled. "It is a holy artifact of Martel, only priests and those who serve as companion to the Chosen may come to these hollowed grounds."

"Oh…" Lloyd knew how to play dumb so he did that. "Sorry, didn't know, I'll leave then. Maybe you guys should put a sign or something?"

He then did his best Kratos impersonation, breezed past the lot of them like they didn't matter.

He could feel Lych's eyes on him, and between his shoulder blades his skin itched and tingled.

"It's not over yet kid, we still have words to have." The red clad swordsman hissed as Lloyd passed. Scars laced Lych's face with lines of white, and they probably were all over the man's body. Lloyd did not give the man the satisfaction of seeing him shiver, but inside he did shiver a little, and his arms hurt even more.

He managed to keep the façade of strength until he got down the stairs, there, alone and unwatched he leaned against one of the pillars and shivered as terror ran through him unchecked. It took a while, a few deep breaths, but he was alright, and thinking a little better when he heard the bushes rustle nearby. He turned to the sound, almost drawing his blade, but checked the impulse last second.

"Psst… Lloyd! Head to the inn!"

Lifting his head Lloyd spotted Genis and nodded his understanding. Taking a deep breath, clenching the hilts of his blades, Lloyd grimly walked away from the "alter" and went back to the inn, where hopefully the others would be waiting. The second he got in he checked on the stables, seeing Noishe was there Lloyd opened the gate and let the dog follow him in.

"Gotta keep you safe Noshy, the people from PalmaCosta are back." Lloyd said in answer to the inquisitive "whine" to his back. "Oh gods, I hope it's just Lych, he's bad enough all on his…"

A wet tongue licked his hand, he smiled and scratched those silky ears.

He was totally shocked to see that the common room had no one in it save Kratos. The man had somehow taken the table in the farthest corner. Kratos blended in with the dark, and watched everything about him even though he looked like he was napping. Lifting his head Kratos met his gaze and Lloyd had this weird feeling that someone was telling him how to cut through everyone without making a show of himself.

Blinking, cuz that was the weirdest feeling ever, Lloyd followed that feeling/advice/ and felt a pleasant tingle go down his arm in response. OK stone acting weird, his head was acting weird, and Noishe's tail was not wagging which went beyond weird and into worrisome. He picked up the chair, plunked it back and squirmed into the seat across from the mercenary.

"I'm surprised you have a smooth touch." Kratos murmured, his voice calm, quiet, it blended into the chatter and easy conversation without causing a ripple like his normally harsh tone would have done. "Are you certain?"

With that tone, in this place, anything could have been spoken about it seemed.

"Yeah."

"Relax, we are safe for now." Kratos soothed.

"Where is everyone?"

"Their rooms, we wont be staying another night, they are packing and they will go out through the windows. I already got the baggage down, so they should be gone to the slums in a bit."

"The what, are you insane?"

Kratos reached across the table and snatched his arm before he got all the way up.

"Sit down Lloyden, now!"

Shivering at the icy tone Lloyd did as ordered, did not protest the corruption of his name.

"They can blend in; after all half elves would not be welcome in any upper class society. Raine assures me that she knows how to act half elven, so they are safe for now. We on the other hand, two powerful humans, can't just fade away however. Your little stunt insured that we have to stay out in the open."

Lloyd cringed. "What was I supposed to do?"

"They only came on one side; you could have just gone around the other way and had no problems. But that is neither here nor now."

Kratos released his arm and lifted a hand to call a serving woman over.

"Get used to being a mercenary Lloyd, and I hope you do a better job of it then you did in Izoold. We are going to do some constructive eavesdropping and I do not want a repeat of your foray into vigilante-hood happening again."

Lloyd gulped, shrank back in the chair at those cold unforgiving eyes. Seeing the fear Kratos softened for a moment, he reached out, gripped Lloyd's shoulder for a heartbeat. Then the mask was in place, the mask of cold indifference.

"Ice be the blood, and death the trade." Kratos murmured. "Do not forget. Now tell me of what you saw and what you did."

Lloyd waited until the woman dropped off the wine and bread and cheese then took a deep breath and went over everything. Kratos sat, quietly absorbing the report, then nodded at it's conclusion.

"So it is him, I had hoped he had died." Kratos frowned. "We will confront him discreetly if he looks to be hunting us, otherwise keep an eye open on your back and one on your front, and keep a hand on your sword at all times."

Lloyd looked at the wine, set it aside and ignored the food as well, he just felt too sick to eat, seeing the hesitance Kratos gave him a sharp look.

"You are still growing Lloyd, you must eat."

"I'm not hungry."

Kratos' glare of death encouraged him to be hungry, very hungry. He finished off the food in no time but couldn't quite get himself to drink the wine.

On that point Kratos did not push, did not demand. He sipped his wine, and when it was halfway down he too Lloyd's glass and calmly spilled about half of it on the floor.

"With hope they won't see it and won't realize we did it. Let us go, apprentice. Don't shuffle your feet or look nervous. Hold your head up, and don't show as much as an iota of feeling. Scan the area, hand on sword, and don't stop unless I order you to. Do not speak unless I openly give you leave."

Lloyd nodded, shivered at the all business tone Kratos was using.

"You'll do fine." Kratos smiled, then dropped the gesture. "Come Garr, profit does not waits for the man who does nothing."


	21. Before the Whirlwind

_A/N: Fanfic update spree…. I will be going bonkers today updating because my uncle will be coming to my house any day now. He dubs all computers, books, paper and pencil, and all electronic centered activities as the anti-thesis of life. In lay man's terms… when uncle come no computer is turned on, no video game is played, no words are written, and the house is not lived in until he leaves. He will be here most of my winter break._

_Further more my parent has discovered I am writing fanfic, my parent dubs it as a waste of time and so during the break I will be having to get another job as it is my parent's hope that I will be so exhausted I will only focus on original stories (I was told this to my face). The words "I'm only doing short stories with my original characters until I am out of college, I don't have the resources to manage a novel and classes" has yet to register and always has my parent pointing to my "Shards" story as a rebuttal._

_I am farther slowed by the fact that the cracker who got into my computer is trying again. He keeps sending me e-mails with his virus, I guess the idea that I changed all my e-mail passwords, questions, disabled one of my accounts, and put in every anti-virus, anti-trojen, spyware, and firewall program I can get my hands on has yet to make him realize I'm not falling for the same trick twice. Regardless if you get an e-mail from me with an attachment and I don't tell you before with a warning e-mail I'm going to be sending you something then don't open it. Especially if it says something like "Spyaxe" or "anti-virus software" as it was the same con that got me stuck with the Spyaxe back door trojen/worm/malware bundle from Hell that destroyed every scrap of my new work and all that I'd transferred over. Don't worry I have a back-up disk this time, most of the loss was the notes for upcoming "Shards" chapters but I have that in writing so I should be covered. I'm just slowed down by a lot of circumstances lately._

_BTW check out my Xanga site, I have a detailed bio for Kratos now up -not a TOS bio but a Shards, DES, River, bio, and I hope to have Yuan up as well..._

_I have not given up yet and will do all I can when I dare._

Shards chapter 21

"Before the Whirlwind"

There were no seedy taverns, no hidden places where those who wallowed in sin or hunted for information from those who lived questionable life-styles could linger. Despite this near surplus of morality, there were taverns that were nearly falling apart. Poverty still had its place in all societies, even the most morally uptight. The rough patrons of the town were all but gone, vanishing as if they had never been. The only remnants of vice lingering about the fringes of this outstanding show of humanity were the drunks who, so far-gone by drink, had none of their wits left. Because of this strained peace --this strained image of paradise that had been sculpted by laws born of fear -- Lloyd and Kratos found themselves the targets of hostile stares. In one instance, they had been ordered to leave a tavern because they were clad in an unholy color.

"It's like their all religious fananfics or something," Lloyd grumbled, rubbing the back of his head to stimulate his thoughts somewhat.

"Fanatics, and keep your voice down. We aren't out of hearing shot yet."

Lloyd nodded, tried to look confident, and radiate that subtle arrogance that was quiet, yet told others to back off. He must not have been doing a good job, 'cuz Kratos continuously kept giving him pointers. They walked down the stone paved streets, or rather the streets of smoothed stone; no mortal hand had smoothed that rock, but the foot falls of the people and the omnipresent touch of the winds. Squinting as powdered rock was kicked up and flew into his eyes, Lloyd muttered a few curse words he'd picked up at Koton's at the wind.

"Where did you learn language like that?" Kratos growled.

"Umm…" Lloyd winced. Saying he'd heard Kratos say those words was instant death so he tried a different route. "Well you curse!"

"Not like that," the auburn haired man rumbled ominously. "Not that vehemently over something insignificant."

"Well you can't get on my case for cursing because you curse." Lloyd thought that to be perfect logic. After all, Kratos couldn't weasel out of that no matter how smart he was!

"I can't, can I?" Kratos hissed.

Oh great, he was dead. Deader then dead. Panicking, Lloyd blurted out the first thing that came to his mind:

"Umm . . . hey, where are we gunna stay for the night?"

Graceful that save was not, but it was a save. The fierce lines around Kratos' mouth and eyes eased as he thought it over.

Sighing in relief, Lloyd was more then happy enough to be quiet and have Kratos forget about him for a little.

"The Fresco is low class enough for our disguises without lacking in basic comforts, plus they don't charge you an arm and leg for the night."

"An… arm and a leg… they take that as payment?" Lloyd squeaked.

"Of course not, it's just a saying. And, Lloyd…"

"Huh?" Lloyd shifted his swords around a little.

"We aren't done with our talk about your excessive profanity."

Great, just great…

X

It was scary going through the unkempt street. Part stone with gapping holes of dust, the whole road looked like a strip of diseased flesh. Wooden houses, some empty, some not, all in states of disrepair, stared at them with their flaky scale-like skin of paint and empty, shattered eyes of glass. Few of the windows were whole, and some of the houses even had marks painted on them, some consisting of Half -elf slurs written in bright red letters, while others were in the holy script of Martel, denouncing those of tainted blood…

Genis gripped Raine's hand. While this was no mob, the mute signs of hate left behind and in the open said so much…

The spirit of the town was obviously crushed in full, if even the act of cleaning or obscuring the marks had stopped. Hope must be dead if the vandalism spurred by hatred was left untended.

Colette took Genis' other hand and gently patted it while Raine gently rested an arm on his shoulder. That was enough: to know that he was safe – that all humans weren't like this. That was enough, and it was all they could give him for now.

"Where are we going, Professor?"

"To find someone who can tell us what's going on. There is something hidden here."

Colette cocked her head to the side, a small frown turning her bow-shaped lips down. "I think…" the angel's Chosen said softly, "that this is supposed to be hidden, that we aren't supposed to see this."

The wind sighed, a disquiet spirit that made the curtains rustle and caress the broken teeth of glass. The laughter of children, the talk of gossips, and so few people going off their porches to talk to their neighbors, made it all seemed muffled. Many people were openly staring at them, many fingering holy talismans and muttering prayers under their breaths to protect them against evil.

"No, Colette, we are not supposed to see this. But I think in order to help these people we have no choice."

X

The talk in the inn was muffled; everyone in the common room was on edge. At last the final straw fell upon strained nerves. The "straw" came in form of a young girl, and the beginning of the breaking was simultaneous with the child breaking a vase. With a loud, almost musical ting, the pieces of porcelain broke. The shards of the vase skittered along the wooden floorboards, the jagged edges of the vase pieces scratched across the wooden floors, and in that horrid silence, that oh so soft sound was audible. Silence fell: it was a silence born of dread. And in that choking silence, the pretty girl's tears and whimpered prayers pierced both the ill-guarded heart and the steel-hardened one.

"Help her, Lloyd," Kratos ordered, countermanding his old order that Lloyd do not speak to or aid anyone. While Lloyd did so Kratos tossed down some gald on the table to cover their expenses.

The younger swordsman blinked, looking over his shoulder even as he was going to the girl. For one second he could see past Kratos' icy facade, which revealed a mix of anger, disgust, and a writhing mass of other emotions -- none of which would be what Colette would call "nice" emotions. All of those feelings somehow were contained in that utterly still, yet expressive, expression.

Forgetting Kratos for a minute, Lloyd sank to his knees by the girl.

He gently wrapped his arms around her shoulders and that seemed to be what she needed. She held onto him like a life-line, and he held her feeling… well, a little strange. From a world away he was aware of someone yelling, snapping that the girl's taint -- her flaws – were contagious, a disease.

"Her humanity, her minuscule error…" a voice growled softly.

Yeah, that had to be Kratos. He was the only guy who used long-tailed words like minuscule in a disagreement.

"Come on, I'll help you pick up some of this junk," Lloyd muttered into the girl's black hair.

"Th.. thank you…" she whimpered, "but you shouldn't. He's right… I was wrong."

"For what, dropping something? Sometimes people are clumsy…" Lloyd protested.

"Only blasphemous dogs would not know of how the Goddess demands perfection from her Chosen people!" the girl's employer spat.

"Blasphemy is a very heavy charge inn-keep," Kratos hissed, his dark eyes blazing, making the patrons of the inn cringe back in terror. Lloyd could easily imagine the man fingering the hilt of his sword, turning statement to threat with a hard gaze and minuscule caresses. As it was, Lloyd wasn't going to waste his time watching Kratos scare a room filled with people He helped the girl to her feet and picked up some of the larger shards.

"Just throw them away," the girl whispered shyly. After all, swordsmen only saved the peasants in the stories, so to her this all must have seemed surreal and dream-like. "The pieces aren't worth anything now that it's broke."

"I bet the person who made it could…"

"When it's broke it's not worth it anymore. Thank you." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"I'll escort you past these…" Kratos offered, waving a hand at the group of humans, all the while not calling them people. Lloyd had a feeling it was a sneaky insult, like the ones Genis used sometimes.

"Lloyd, wait for me here if you would."

When Kratos returned the two abandoned the cramped common rooms wove through the tables and people and made it through the swinging doors to the halls. They had ordered separate rooms, but Kratos signaled for Lloyd to follow him.

Baffled, but subdued by a strange feeling that made his gut writhe and his hands sweaty, the younger swordsman just followed Kratos' lead. He knew he was out of his depth. Lloyd could feel and see the tension of the Asgardians, and was helpless to do anything about it, to change the situation. To think that being surrounded by so many unhappy could make him feel so scared and sick."

"I know we ordered separate rooms, but I don't feel comfortable leaving you alone. You sleep heavily and if an assassin comes…" Kratos whispered, his dark eyes flicking about as if to see if the rooms around them were opened even a crack.

Lloyd nodded, drew his arms over his chest, and shivered. He felt cold – cold, scared, and strangely alone.

"Kratos… what's going on? Those people, everyone, they're scared to death."

"They are scared of death, and the ritual. Speaking of it makes them go pale and start looking for places to hide."

"You said," Lloyd hissed, "not to ask about the…"

"I know what I said." Kratos pulled out the key from his belt – the key he'd demanded from the innkeeper upon entering. "I said that it would be dangerous. I can safely deal with the consequences of my actions. You, on the other hand, are not skilled enough with blade or tongue to fight or talk your way out of a dangerous situation." Lifting the key, the mercenary turned it over so that the setting sun's light fell upon it and stained the lettering red.

"Humph… thirteen, it figures."

"Nice…" Lloyd ran a hand through his brown locks. He let the mercenary fumble key into lock. The man went in first then Lloyd followed, absently closing the door behind him. "What are we going to do?"

"Nothing. We are not in the business of being heroes, Lloyd. The bulk of heroes die inglorious deaths, and it is in our lives we must fulfill our duty to the… mechanics of this Regeneration."

"What about the others?" Lloyd protested. Something in his chest tightened painfully at hearing Kratos was just happy to let things stand, to do nothing. That hurt, though he didn't know why.

"Tomorrow I will hunt the Sages and the Chosen down and we will leave. This may be the capital for knowledge on the ruins of yore, but the library in Luin, or the Tower of Mana, will serve us just as well."

Lloyd nodded his head even as the sick feeling was getting worse. He eyed the bed with undisguised longing, spotting the glance Kratos chuckled.

"Go ahead, I'll take first watch."

"Thanks."

Lloyd went to the low lying mat, sat on its edge, and fumbled with the cape. He had to unbutton it from the collar of his, than unhook the clasps that bound the cape to the front and back of his shirt. It was a strange arrangement.

When he'd asked why the heck Kratos would do something like that, the man had said that having the hook in the back kept the cape from flying in his face when he tumbled, jumped, or ran.

Tossing the cape to the floor – well he was going to until Kratos gave him a glare of death from the corner of his eye – Lloyd snagged the ends of the stupid thing and gracefully caught it.

Snorting at the "I meant to do that, I was just playing" that Lloyd absently muttered, Kratos drew his sword, pulled out a whetstone from his pack, and went to work tending the blade.

Folding the stupid thing, he laid it on the end where he planned to put his head. Since the mattress on the floor didn't exactly have a pillow, he decided to make the thing useful for once. He bent and fumbled off his boots. The only other sound in the room was the steady scrape of stone across steel.

"Kratos…" Licking his lips, focusing on the boots, Lloyd gathered his courage. "Why can't we do anything about this?"

The stone stopped with one last discordant screech of steel across stone that made Lloyd's teeth clench. Silence fell in the room.

"It is not a case of can not. We are, after all, intelligent enough -I imagine- to be able to find out what is wrong here with a few days of constructive eavesdropping and questioning. Then it would be in our power to do something about it. It is a case of will not."

"Why not?" Lloyd pressed, wanting, needing, to know.

"Mercenaries…"

"I'm not a mercenary, alright!" Lloyd flared.

"Well—" Kratos rose an eyebrow, his tone taking on a hint of a chill to it. "—I am. I also consider it my duty to keep innocents from wandering into situations they are ill-equipped to handle."

"I am not a little kid!" Lloyd hissed. "You talk about saving people, of helping innocents! Well, isn't turning your back on a bunch of them just as bad?"

Kratos' lips curled into an open sneer, it seemed a feral gesture on his face. An animal's baring of teeth would have been gentler gesture.

"Going to play hero again, Lloyd? I thought Iselia had actually taught you something."

Lloyd winced; that shot hit the heart and set his whole soul to bleeding.

"How can you be so cold?"

"I am as I need to be, Lloyd."

"You're going to let these people die, because of the way they're acting, that's what's going to happen."

"They may be wrong."

"They aren't and we both know it… So you aren't going to do anything." Lloyd felt the sickness rise in his throat: a bitter hot taste that was going to fill his mouth. He swallowed it down, along with his disappointment.

"I will only act when it becomes in my -or in this journey's- best interest that I do so."

Lloyd worked the buckles back onto his boots, when they were secure he stood.

"What in Origin's name are you doing?"

"I'm going out for a walk…" Lloyd snatched up the cape and just buttoned the thing on. It sagged and made even more noise than normal when he walked, but he could deal with that.

What he couldn't deal with was staying in this room for a second longer.

Quick as a cat and silent as death, Kratos sprang to his feet. Lloyd felt Kratos' hands against his shoulder, felt the fingers dig into his arms like small claws. In less then a heartbeat, he was smashed against the wall, only a few feet from the door. Wincing at the hit, startled that Kratos would or could do that to him, Lloyd struggled in the man's grasp, but found himself helplessly pinned. Pushing down his fear, resisting the urge to close his eyes and shiver, Lloyd met Kratos' eyes.

"Let me go."

"Not until you listen to me, Lloyden. These people are in a siege mentality, everyone they don't know personally is the enemy. Lych is out there somewhere, it would be sui-"

Lloyd could feel something in his mind click, and the fear in him faded, and there came forth a realization, an understanding. He felt sick, disgusted, but managed to keep from shrugging off Kratos' arms and pushing the man away.

"Your son's name was Lloyden, wasn't it?"

Kratos' face went bloodless, his eyes widened in shock, and a tremble took his frame. It was as if Lloyd's sharp tone had been a blade, for the powerful mercenary seemed to be struck dead in that moment. For a long time Kratos didn't breath, for a long time he was stiller than any corpse Lloyd had ever seen.

"And that's the only reason you care about me, because I remind you of your son. The rest of the world could die, but you wouldn't care."

Kratos lifted his face, frustration, anger, pain, made the expression, cracked through the icy calm and showed just for a second a glimpse into a torture that very few could endure. With another shiver, Kratos bowed his head, his auburn hair making a jagged mask over his face. So weakened was Kratos that he rested it wearily on Lloyd's chest. The burden that was the loss of those he loved brought the mercenary down to nothing, and he shuddered with the force of a suppressed sob. Shivering Lloyd rolled his shoulders and Kratos pulled back, agony flashing in his black eyes. Kratos slowly released Lloyd, took a step back, and leaned against the door frame, staring with unblinking, unseeing eyes. Then with another shudder the man lowered his head, his auburn hair became a tangled screen that made his face unreadable.

"I… I'm… not your son…." Lloyd whispered in a tight shaking voice.

Slowly Kratos lifted his head, tears streamed down his face, his long hair fell into his face, obscured all but one eye that seemed like a damned thing that was looking and could not hide, like its twin.

"I can't be your son, both my parents are dead. Dirk... told me that they were both dead."

"You lost… your parents… I lost my child…" Kratos whispered. The thread that bound them seemed to scream in pain, wincing Lloyd looked away, stared at nothing in particular while he tried to control himself.

"I… I'm not… Don't you think that this would be everything I wanted? To have a family again?" Lloyd sobbed, any pre-tense of composure dissolving. "But I'm not… I can't be your son, damn it! It's impossible! You're too young, I'm too old, and it doesn't work out! It wouldn't make sense if it did work out!"

Crumpling at the force of his pain, Lloyd seemed ready to fall. Half holding, half supporting, Kratos drew the young man into his arms and held him while the tears and pain played out. They were so close now that there tears mingled, with the tears falling from Lloyd's eyes bringing feather light touches across his cheek and chin while his own tears fell upon Lloyd's head.

"If the matter of blood," Kratos swallowed, "is that much a concern…. Then I will never bring this up with you ever again."

"I want a promise from you," Lloyd whispered. "Something you'll never break. If I ever start looking for my blood father… don't hate me for doing that… please. Dad, my dwarf Dad…"

"I won't," Kratos murmured. "You have every right to look."

Lloyd bowed his head and sniffled weakly into Kratos' tunic.

"If you use my cape to clean your nose, I will do massive bodily harm to you."

"Heh…" Lloyd closed his eyes. "I could live with that."

"You wouldn't want to," Kratos mock growled.

"Heh, you'd never get a hit in, I'd so kick your tail." Lloyd gulped down his tears, managed a smile that Kratos returned.

Lloyd stiffened in shock as Kratos gently wove his fingers of one hand through his hair. He weakly leaned against Kratos, allowed the mercenary his petting. Dad, his dwarf Dad was well… too short to hug, and was shy about touching and being touched, like all dwarves were.

Going to Iselia, seeing all human children with their parents… It had hurt when Lloyd realized he couldn't have that closeness with his parent. Colette had been a double shock, mock pouncing, tackling, tickling. Even Genis had been pretty free with a torrent of pokes, pats, and the occasional attempted tackle and electric charged snatch at the hair. Being held by Raine when he was sick, even having her hover over him with her holding his hand when he was ill, had been different – in some ways totally shocking. It had woken the painful distance between him and his dwarf father: it had made him aware that as a human he needed to be touched, held – those were human things. The dwarf thing was a few curt words, an awkward pat, or a slight smile.

"I'm… not much of a so-" Lloyd began to protest weakly.

"Lloyd, hush." Kratos let the fingers of one hand tangle in Lloyd's hair, muttered a few words in angelic, and tightened his grip. The man tightened it up by a lot. Lloyd felt like he was going to hear bones snap, gasping Lloyd stiffened in pain, managed to croak out a few words.

"Kratos… I can't breathe…" Lloyd wheezed.

He was let go and with a faint hint of red about his cheeks, Kratos pulled the locks of auburn out of his night hued eyes.

"Gods, we're a pair of fools aren't we?" Lloyd coughed.

"Sentimental fools, is more like it," Kratos murmured more to himself than as a response. Then the man shook his head sharply, as if to banish some thought. "No, we are not fools. The only fools are those who kill their emotions off."

"Huh…" Lloyd shifted the hilts of his swords in discomfort, than went to the door.

"Where are you going?" Kratos sounded… hurt.

"I got some stuff I need to think about, and I wanna check on Noishe." Lloyd grimaced. "Lych might try the same sick trick again."

The younger swordsman was shocked when Kratos motioned him to wait and went to fetch his sword. Lifting the sheath from its resting place on the floor, the mercenary held it in one hand, and his long sword in the other. Cocking his head to the side, wondering why Kratos was getting ready to leave, Lloyd frowned.

"Where are you going?"

"With you, if you'll have me. I feel ill at ease with Lych about, and with the two of us together he might decide it's not worth the risk if he sees that his target has company."

Lloyd sighed. He had wanted to talk to Noishe by himself to get Noshy's permission if Kratos could be allowed to…

Oh well, some other time.

"Sure, why not." Lloyd dredged up a grin. "If he sees you coming Lych'd probably run the other direction."

"If he values his life, Lloyden," Kratos sheathed his sword; it made a steely undercurrent to the already ominous threatening note in the man's voice. "He better damn well."

X

Linar ran a hand through his indigo hued locks, while his sister Aisha smiled at their guests, and was as gracious as he presumed a Chosen would be. The blond haired human hardly cared for the points of his, his sisters, or even Harley's ears. Aisha and the girl named Colette were happily chattering away about religion. Linar smiled at that sight; it was rare for them to have friends because they were half-bloods.

They were half-breeds to the humans and half-weak-bloods to the Desian's whose offers they had turned down.

Harvey would have said and agreed to that, and once, not long ago, Linar would have too.

But there was always proof -- indisputable, inarguable proof, that such a close-minded hate on the end of human and half-elf might have a hope of fading. He was seeing another bit of it as the human child Colette and his sister happily compared and contrasted a few stories about angels. Not having much a taste for that kind of talk, the indigo haired half-elf pulled out a few notes on the Asgard Alter: the massive monolith that would be his sister's place of execution if he didn't do something. A shadow fell over him, over his papers, and he looked up, a scowl curling its way onto his face. The biting words he would have said to Harvey were banished as he stared at the silver haired woman who had so harshly chastised them for "testing" the "unstoppable" Breaker in one of the many ruins of Asgard.

"Um..." He pushed his glasses up and stared at the pointy eared woman, all words abandoning him. Those night sky colored eyes flicked over his face then settled on his notes with an almost predatory delight. "Can I help you?"

She smiled at him, sat down besides him and pulled out a long extensive sheaf of notes from her packs.

"I am conducting a study of the ruins around the world, while my friends and I are on this journey." Linar ignored the woman's face, gave the notes a quick glance, and felt himself ready to start salivating. They looked... very detailed.

"I was wondering if I could look..."

"N.. Not a problem, I am conducting a compare-contrast study of the Asgard Ruins to the Iselia monolithic temple but circumstances..."

"Oh, there are many circumstances, I completely understand, feel free to look at my..."

With trembling hands, both of the ruin obsessive, pointy-eared people had exchanged notes.

Though muffled, it was only a few moments before two eyes shone with Ruin Mode glee and there was a very intense conversation about history kicked up.

From across the room, Harvey and Genis looked at the two crazed people, at the oblivious Aisha and Colette, then at each other.

"The scary thing is... we're related," Genis whispered to the tall half-elf.

In sympathy, Harvey put a hand on Genis' shoulder, offered what thin comfort he could.

X

"That was not the ritual's intent; the dance was to give praise to the Spirit, not to offer a sacrifice..." Raine frowned, setting aside her Ruin Mode in order to fully deal with the problem before them all. They all sat at the dining table, food from Raine's packs serving as everyone's dinner. Genis had spent half an hour or so tossing together a quick meal that their hosts had happily dug into. Genis did not miss the quiet their hosts fell into the meal with; it was the trademark of those who were so lost in poverty that they regularly sacrificed meals to keep a roof over their heads.

"That all changed when _this_ one--" Harvey shot a vile glare at Linar. " --went to the Ruin, went bonkers, and upset..."

"It was an accident!" Raine snapped. "We all get enthusiastic about something, Mister Harvey, and accidents happen."

Linar smiled shyly, shifted his glasses and sighed. "Ms. Sage, thank you, but your championing of me is sorely misplaced. I have caused a great deal of trouble. Now instead of appearing ever year, the spirit comes every month."

"And every month they sacrifice someone to it." Harvey said darkly. "See, what we were doing was right! And because we almost got caught their going to sacrifice my girl- erm my childhood friend!"

Aisha blushed and Linar chuckled sadly at the hesitant couple's antics.

"It's not over until it's over, hold faith that in the end everything will be all right." Colette's gentle voice cut through the growing panic and seemed to sooth it.

Raine nodded in agreement, smiled fondly at Linar, then Harvey.

"It's not over; never give up hope that the facts will fall in place and that we'll have the right answer in time." Raine lost her smile, frowning. "I wish Kratos and Lloyd were here: they know more about the summon spirits than any of us, but we'll do without their expertise for now. Now, we need information: first on what happens during the ritual, everything you know will be useful."

"But even if we stop it this time, what's to keep the spirit from blasting the town to the Underworld when it appears next time?" Linar protested quietly, he cringed back at his own words. He was shamed by the fact that to protect the town he was more or less going to have to sacrifice his sister.

"We have to keep the people of Asgard in mind." Aisha frowned. "If my completing the rite is the only way to save Asgard I'll do it."

"No." Raine closed her eyes. "I'll do it."

"What!" Genis cried out in shock, his cry was joined by the shocked Asgardians.

Raine sighed, ran a hand through her silver locks and opened her eyes. She looked into the shocked and horrified expressions of Linar, Aisha, Harvey, and Genis. Out of all of them, only one person seemed to understand: Collete, who nodded. She was no stranger to sacrifice, no stranger to martyrdom being that the faith she was raised upon was centered upon it.

"I am the only one suited for it, Ms. Aisha, and I have a similar build, enough of one that during the ritual we can pass for one another if need be. Further more the sacrifice demands a maiden and ah... well that bars Genis, Harvey, and Linar out of this race as they say." Raine felt a hint of fire creep onto her cheeks and she realized that she had yet to have the "talk" with her younger brother. "Colette is too important to sacrifice, and further more, what Linar was able to tell me about the ritual there will be some sort of athletic feat, and well dear, you aren't very nimble or graceful when under pressure."

"I'm sorry, Professor."

"It's not your fault dear, don't apologize," Raine replied absently. Saying "don't apologize" had become a near reflex for everyone in Iselia since Colette had been old enough to talk. "So unless you gentleman would like to change genders, I am the only one suitable for this."

"But..." Genis blinked rapidly. "I bet all you want to do is see this ritual!" He snapped, pain lost to anger in a heartbeat. "You don't care what happens, you don't care how dangerous it is, you're only doing this so you can get to see that stupid ruin up close."

"Genis..." Raine stood a hint of anger in her tone. "You know it's not like..."

"It is, don't lie!" Genis flared, then he wiped at his eyes. Startled by his tears, Raine lost her anger and moved to go to him.

"You know I care for you it's.."

"No you don't!" Genis yelled. "I hate you, leave me alone!" He turned on his heel and ran out of the room and into the shadows of the coming night.

"Colette, wait for me here," Raine said over her shoulder, then ran after her brother. He would not be safe here, not in this impoverished section of this town. Though he might be mad at her, and he might actually hate her... she could not leave him alone. And she never would, not if she could help it.

X

Noishe barked, wagged his tail, and cheerfully, without words -- save the occasional yip and whine -- showed himself to be fine despite Lloyd's worries. Grinning, Lloyd got the one up on his horse sized dog. He pounced before he was pounced; a pre-emptive strike was Kratos' words for it. Not knowing what pre-emptive was, Lloyd just bowled the green and silver hued dog over and then ran his fingers over the huge creature's belly. Now the yips were more plentiful. Noishe writhed under his "master's" cold fingers, and even though dogs couldn't laugh, he managed a sound much like laughter.

"Give it up! I'm so kicking your tail!"

"Grr... Yip!" Noishe let out a sharp kick as a Lloyd found his ticklish spot and went at it with obvious glee.

"He can't breathe, Lloyd," the black clad human chuckled from the darkness. "Let him go already."

Noishe only wheezed under his "master's" hands and Lloyd sighed, tickled the silver tip of the animal's snout, and then got off.

"What'd I tell you?"

"Yes... I guess you can beat someone at something." Kratos sighed, shaking his head from side to side so the auburn locks drifted into his black eyes.

Noishe only lay on his back gasping. When the heaving sides settled to a more sedate pattern the slender, silver hued limbs with their green streaks stretched to the stars. Yawning, Noishe arched as much as one could while on his back, and seemed content to stare at the sky. The only sound heard was the thump of his huge, fluffy tail patting the gravely earth.

"Asgard is just plain weird," Lloyd announced, and the dark of the coming night and budding stars in the sky were so moved that they went about their normal patterns as if nothing had happened. Kratos chuckled, his black tunic and pants made him appear to be a extension of the darkness, so for at least until he moved and drew attention to himself, Kratos was little more then a talking shadow.

"Not every place is Iselia, Lloyden."

"Yeah, but I mean I've seen mountains, and gullies, and this place is like both wrapped up into one. It's all rocky and grassy and steep and... well it's just weird."

"Unique," the mercenary gently corrected. And for a man who was naturally cold and distant, it was surprising that he was able to speak gently, to offer anything besides biting sarcasm and scorn. But that was just proof how close the two of them had gotten, how deep their friendship had finally become. "It is a one of a kind environment. In fact, there are several species that can live no where else but here."

"How'd you get so smart again?" Lloyd plunked himself down on the grassy bit of ground, not noting how Noishe had rolled over and was now quietly creeping forward on the tips of his paws.

"I get around, so I see a great deal, and that leads to the acquisition of knowledge."

"Long words, not again!" Lloyd whined, running a hand through his chestnut hued locks. "Kraaatooss, you're making my head hurt."

"Good," the man chuckled. "That's further proof that your brain must be growing and that it is pushing back against the confines of that all too cramped skull."

"Huh? Wait a second, did you just say I was dumb or something?"

"Perhaps I did."

"Perhaps I did," Lloyd parroted, adding a whiny sneer to the words.

"For that I will not warn you," Kratos said cooly.

"Warm me, about wha-"

"BARK!" With a battle cry worthy of a warrior's pet, Noishe threw himself forward and smashed into the surprised swordsman. There was a slight tussle and Noishe came out on top, and like always when victorious he set his tongue over the back of Lloyd's head.

"YUCK! Noishe, GET OFF!"

"Whine?"

"I have no objections; lick him to your heart's content."

"Hey why are you taking his... Eww.. Noishy, stop it already!"

Ignoring his disgruntled master, Noishe happily licked at the back of Lloyd's head, coating every inch of the boy's head in a generous amount of dog drool. Tail thumping a merry tune against Lloyd's leg, the dog crossed his paws and then set his head on the fluffy part of the mattress he had spent do much time "shaping". Kratos chuckled at the sight, staying safely out of range of that mouth, all the while listening to Lloyd crying out for help.

"Damn it, Kratos, this isn't funny! Help!"

Kratos snickered; his shoulders were shaking so much the "wing" part of his cape that the massive shoulder pads were hopping up and down. The motion wasn't too dissimilar to a bird flapping its wings.

"Come on, I saved you when he did this to you!"

Kratos very slowly set himself on the ground and began to laugh, it was not the bitter laughter born of scorn or disdain, and not the mocking laughter that cut into life's petty mechanics with the surety of a blade passing through tainted flesh. It was laughter, normal, warm, _human_ laughter. Lloyd remembered one of the dwarven vows then, one that could easily apple -no, that was a food you ate- Apple... aples... applee... apply... Apply that was it! There was a dwarven vow he knew then that could easily apply to Kratos.

_One who denies pleasure in full is prone to over indulge, especially when that "indulgence" is necessary for life._

As if to prove Dad right, Kratos seemed to have come down with a case of the giggles, and even glancing in Lloyd's direction made the man burst out with laughter. Okay, it was nice Kratos was laughing and acting more normal then Lloyd had ever seen the man act before, but now, when he was stuck? That wasn't fair!

Well, fair or not he was stuck, and he was going to be stuck until Kratos finally got some control over himself and stopped laughing. Despite himself, Lloyd pouted, and the childish expression on his face made Kratos laugh even more...

Shifting a bit, Lloyd knew it was going to be a long night, as if to agree Noishe smacked him with a paw and growled at him for moving.

X

Sobbing, he bowed his head and found some warmth and comfort when he perched his chin upon his knees. His tears were cold, the night was cold, and it felt like twin thin streams of fire that had turned to ice were threading down his cheeks. He cried like the child he was, and had he been a little more coherent he might have found some humor in how his crying seemed like a negative image of all the other children who came here by day. Earlier, Genis had glimpsed the tail end of a game; it was after Linar had found them and was leading them to his house, Genis had seen the children poking about the old storage shed, trying desperately to find a youth named Pete. There had been laughter and smiles in the sunlight and now in the thickening shadows of night it had all been replaced by his tears.

He shuddered as another wave of misery ran through him, his mind a mix of guilt, anger, and shame.

Why had he said such horrible things to Raine? But wasn't it true what he'd said? If she cared for him then wouldn't she not think about the ruins or even the people of Asgard were more important then him? But he was a horrible person wasn't he, for thinking that someone was more important than him? He was selfish and… and… well his extensive vocabulary abandoned him and he got trapped on the word selfish but perhaps that was because there weren't any other right words to explain.

"Genis!"

Lifting his head, wiping at his eyes, the small sorcerer cringed back into the shadows cast by the shed. That was Raine's slightly shrill voice calling out for him. She was going to be mad at him; she'd probably spank him or something. She sounded so mad…

"Genis!"

_I'm not coming out, I'm safe here and I'm not leaving…_

Footsteps came closer to him. She must have stopped at the shed. From the sounds of things, Raine stood at the door where he was cringing at the poorly kept wooden structure's back. He stilled his breath, scared that she'd hear even that quiet sound, tucked his arms round his knees and curled into a small little ball in his fear.

"Genis!" Raine's voice cracked and he could have sworn he heard her voice breaking like she was trying to keep from crying. "Oh Goddess, where are you…"

He lifted his head and uncurled just the slightest bit at the sound of her tears. She was crying now, he could hear her soft sobs.

But that couldn't be right: Sis never cried, not ever…

He uncurled, and like the youngest of children, he crept out of the shadows on hand and knee. He was wrong about one thing, Raine had stopped and leaned against the wooden side of the building. He could see her, through the dark made it hard; a normal human probably wouldn't have seen her. She was leaning against the side of the shed, her oak staff in one hand, the ends of her orange coat clutched together in the other. She shivered, started blankly at the air in front of her and then bowed her head to wipe her eyes.

Moonlight caught the small droplets on the ends of her fingers, making them gleam like bits of silver before they fell to the uncaring earth.

_When you shed a tear cast it to the earth and the hope and silent prayer it holds will fly to heaven to an angel's ear…_

So said the book of Martel.

He stood, pushed off the ground and leaned against the side of the building; he was still in the shadows, only a little, but she couldn't see him just yet. He was scared -only a little- which he would be Raine'd, but that fear was nothing compared to the pain he was seeing on Raine's face.

"Sis…" Genis whispered.

She turned, and her face, through red-eyed and tear streaked, transformed. All the fear, all of the masked terror, drained away into relief in a heartbeat, and despite having been crying –and not looking very pretty as she cried- her happiness at seeing him made her even more beautiful than Colette or any other person in the world. He didn't quite know how it happened, one second he was there, standing by himself, and the next she had knelt and was enfolding him in her arms. He nestled against her, snuggled in her embrace and even as he did so her slender ghost-white fingers from one hand were weaving through his hair even as both arms cradled him and held them together.

"I… I'm sorry I said… those horrible…" His words were punctured with hiccupping sobs as his tears tried to come up all at once.

"Shhh…" She gently rocked him back and forth. "You don't need to apologize, Genis, everything's going to be alright now…"

"I don't hate you… I really don't…" Genis bawled.

"I know… I know." She tweaked his hair, and at her playful gesture he felt some of the tears in him settle down and stop clogging up his throat.

She sat down and he settled in her lap as he had done when he was very young. She pulled her coat over them both and he said nothing. He leaned back even as she rested her chin against the silver locks of his hair.

"I promise everything is going to be alright," Raine whispered.

"But… I… don't understand…" He sniffled, the idea of her going somewhere dangerous, doing something dangerous made him want to start to cry again.

"You don't understand why I'm doing this?" She sighed, than her voice perked up and took the all too familiar teaching tone he'd heard every day since they moved to Iselia. "It's really not all that complicated. These people need to know the truth. We need to know the truth for the Regeneration. This "spirit" might be tied to the Seal, this could be the place that the Book told us to go and we need to know for sure. Plus… if we don't act Aisha will be killed, that is that."

"But we don't know them…"

"They're half-elves Genis."

"So, we don't know them!" Genis gulped. "If it were Lloyd, or Colette, or a human we didn't know, would you care?"

"Well it can't be Lloyd." Raine chuckled. "After all, there is no way he could be a maiden, and for Colette, yes I would care, and I would act."

"If it were a human you didn't know would you?"

Raine fell silent for a long moment, very still.

"Yes, I believe I would," Raine said at last.

And even through she held him and he knew that she loved him he knew something else.

Genis knew that Raine was lying.

"I won't get hurt, and you aren't thinking this through very well," she teased, ruffling his hair. "Are you sure you aren't a smaller version of Lloyd?"

"Only if you drop me on my head a few times."

She laughed softly. "Everyone in Asgard has to attend this ritual, and do you honestly think Lloyd is just going to sit and let some horrible demon try to eat me? He'll be there to help, Colette will be there, and so will you, so everything will be all right. And if it's a really strong and horrible spirit I'll just "Raine" it and it'll be so scared it will run away, just like that monster in the closet, alright?"

Genis nodded.

"I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be, you were scared and that made you lose control, it's all right. Just don't do something like that again."

"I promise."

And Genis had to wonder if she knew that he was lying now.

"You know… if it were Lloyd he wouldn't care. It could be a half-elf, an elf, a human, a rabbit even on that alter, and he'd try to stop the monster."

"Yes…" Raine sighed. "Well that's Lloyd."

And that wasn't them, it wasn't either of them.

In his sister's arms, safe and warm, he swallowed his tears and told himself not to cry. He wouldn't cry, not with Raine around, he didn't want to worry her anymore.

"It's going to be all right, I promise."

He wanted to believe, he really did, but the tears in his throat were proof that he couldn't.

He just couldn't...

"I'm sorry..." Genis whispered.

"Are you turning into Colette too?" Raine chuckled and Genis managed a sound that was vaguely like a laugh. And she didn't think anything of it, and his words were soon forgotten.


	22. the reaper laid in a whirlwind

Chapter 22

The reaper lay amongst the wind,

A/N: It's a past tense title for a reason, as this is an experiment in large scale flashbacks. I've never seen this style done on anything but TV shows and I want to try adapting it into pure writing format. I tried to give everyone a chance to shine this chapter... it's awful reflective but don't worry they'll be on the road and dealing with stuff again very soon. Does anyone besides me like the Taunt skill? Well Lloyd uses it, some humor within. I fell in love with the TOA (tales of abyss) opening, coupled with the song "falling into fantasy" that someone added to it on "you tube"... well something massive clicked and I now have the final battle scene DONE after writers block has plagued me on it. I lost the "Hurricane Thrust" scene word for word -the campus comp froze as I was saving- but I tried to transfer it from memory so we'll see if this slightly altered final fight blows your breath away like I hope it will. As always, pleasant reading. Next chapter will be set out as soon as I can. My beta and I are rather busy at the moment with school so we'll get to it when we can, as it is the slowness on my end is I'm trying to beat the wind temple and somehow incorperate the text in the temple to some type of legend/story thing that Colette tells to flesh out the church of Martel... I cut up one full fighting scene into five segments, each going over a different part -never would of known it would have been harder then just writing it out all at once I don't think I'll do that very often in upcoming chapters- and now that we're almost done with Asgard it's time to plan Luin,Kvar, aaaand_rubs hands evily_ my last pre-made OC character's introduction (Syt for those who've read and liked DES enough to remember him). As for the cliffie at theend of the chapter (laughs) I'll leave it to your imaginations for a while.

_The wind stirred around the deserted streets. It was a disquiet ghost that rushed over the open empty buildings and moaned between the cracks and crevices of stone. It howled, or perhaps it moaned, as it caught the edges of buildings and mars in the earth. Invisible, yet never unheard or unfelt, the wind made the slender, yet long ribbons pinned to his collar flare out behind him. The breeze plastered his red shirt to him and put painful pressure on his bandages. Still he did not move, only watched. The altar seemed like ice in the moonlight. Once a holy object so sacred the ancients had sheathed the mesa in the strongest stone while the motor they had used to hold it together had been of their own blood and sweat, and the ground's holiness made that blood and sweat as nothing... In recent times, error had made the altar an object of pain and suffering; in the present time, it was being desecrated. The people of the City of Ruins were having some sort of celebration upon the stone dais: dancing, drinks, and hammers were scattered round about, many falling into the hands of the less sober, so that chips of stone were being broken off. Every kind of enjoyment that their fear had denied them for so many months was now being released._

_The winds sighed, a wiser thing than them all, it seeme. And though the tamed gale carried the sounds of laughter and joy to his ears the wind seemed heavy, subdued. Maybe the wind was as bewildered as he was._

_The Asgardians' defiance was this show of joy. It was a pitiful defiance against the dead creature that had brought them so much pain. It was also the way of all humans, if you believed Kratos._

_"Unable to defeat it themselves they sit upon the beast's corpse and make jokes and destroy the traces of evil. Chained by terror, now free of that chain, now free from the terror that once chained them, they will overindulge on that which their fear denied them. Once the knowledge that their freedom will not disappear occurs to them, I imagine some level of sense will return."_

_Kratos' lips had quirked into a rare smile and he had patted Lloyd's silky chestnut hair._

_"Don't worry, everything will be alright."_

Lloyd bit his lip, stared up at the slopes, and atthe concrete steps and the angel-made mesa that rested at the very heart of Asgard. The altar was lit by flame, by torch, by bonfire -- so much so that and it looked like a volcono... valcany... something like that. Somehow, everything seemed wrong. To his eyes the sun wanted to rise over that small mountain but couldn't.

"Lloyden... it's late out."

Lloyd didn't correct the man who had called him by that strange name. He didn't even turn to regard the speaker. He just stared at the black shapes that moved around that the white plane and stared at how that icy base was now wreathed in a murky red.

A hand, warm and human, fell onto his shoulder. Lloyd jolted under the touch, and after his shock died he turned to grin sheepishly at the mercenary.

"Sorry..." he said, releasing the handles of his twin swords.

Kratos smiled beforefrowning as he looked upon the celebration; he then knew why the boy hadn't returned.

"I promise, Lloyden, that everything is going to be alright. Though we are faced with a difficulty now it will be alri-."

"Your promise… was that to me, or to your real son?" Lloyd snapped, then bit his lip. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that I..." The younger swordsman cringed back from the older man, turned so that he was looking away, so that he was no longer facing the mercenary.

Kratos gently pulled the young man's shoulder. Lloyd went with the pull and was face- to- face with the man he'd just insulted. There was no pain in those brown eyes, instead, some dark humor flashed across those night-dark expanses that quickly winked out like a fire being doused. Or perhaps it was better to say that the humor winked out like a candle flame held to a gale. Having made the young man meet his gaze, Kratos said only one word; that word forgave and offered comfort when all others could not.

"Both."

"What?" It was not from confusion but disbelief that Lloyd squeaked that word out.

"I said those words to both and I mean it to both. Come, Lloyden, it's getting late, and tomorrow will be another hard day."

"Not as hard as today..." Lloyd sighed.

"Hopefully not."

Despite the fact that comfort really wasn't offered, Lloyd smiled and felt comforted. Yeah, Kratos was just stating a fact but... when he said it somehow it didn't seem like it would be all that bad.

The black-clad mercenary draped an arm over Lloyd's shoulders and the young man squirmed away from the overload of Colette-like cuddle contact.

Kratos stiffened, muttered something about adolescents, then relaxed. They both left the balcony walking side by side. As they wandered the gloom and rug choked inn off tune humming drifted from one of the rooms they passed. Kratos' hand immediately snapped over the hilt of his blade. At that sight Lloyd rolled his eyes.

"It's just Colette, Kratos. Sheesh, lighten up will you?"

Kratos snorted, "When I have a reason to lighten up, as you so crudely put it..." He winced at a particularly sour note. "... and when she learns to stay in key perhaps I shall."

"Oh shut up, she sings really good--" Lloyd ribbed the older man. "--unlike you, when you clean that sword of yours."

"I do not sing when I tend my gear!" Kratos growled, his brown eyes narrowing to slits.

"You hum, though there was that time during watch in Thoda where when you sang "Row, row, row your boat"."

"I had that damned song stuck in my head," Kratos hissed, "and the only way to get it out of one's mind is to--"

"Sing it really badly?" Lloyd snickered.

Kratos growled then draped his arm over the young man's shoulders. Sensing something was amiss, especially when the mercenary's grip tightened, Lloyd tried to squirm free. Kratos' fisted hand descended upon the adolescent's skull, running back and forth, messing up his hair - and well, it hurt. Yelping in pain, Lloyd tried to fight free, but he was tired and Kratos was a heck of a lot stronger than he was. Finally, he gave up, wincing at the burning pain and ruffled hair and let the mercenary swagger off ahead, letting him think he'd won.

Living with Noishe though had taught Lloyd a few tricks, and one of them was that you let 'them' think they won before pouncing on them at the first opportunity to get back. So Kratos thought he had won, well, at least until the man got to the green rug that rested on the dark-stained, wooden floor. Lloyd took a few steps then bent down. Kratos was just turning to see what was going on when Lloyd took the opportunity to rip the rug out from under the man's feet.

One Colette-step later, Kratos was now sprawled out on the floor. Laughing at Kratos, the Iselian swordsman suddenly stopped as the mercenary found his feet and favored him with the glare of death.

"Oh shit..." Dropping the rug he ran towards his room. If he got there first he could maybe lock Kratos out of their room. That'd keep him safe -- for a little bit anyways...

X

_"This is a sacred artifact! How dare you woman, how dare you desecrate it with your presence! " The village elder howled, while his gold-tipped staff thumped against the stone steps. He looked ready to climb the steps of the altar and drag her down._

_A foul wind howled, rising from the stones, whipping around her like a miniature whirlwind. Lifting an arm to fend off the reek of tainted mana and rotten meat, the white-haired man staggered back, his robes and cape flapping about him in the tainted wind like seraphim wings._

_**The girl, this is your Chosen?** Rasped the wind in a voice of brittle leaves scrapping across the stone of a grave._

_"Yea, oh servant of Martel." The village elder cried, fulfilling his part of the ceremony. "If pure her heart is, then I beseech ye to take her unto heaven in our name!"_

_"Wait!" Colette's voice rose up from the crowd. "No, you don't understand! The angels are supposed to take the Chosen to heaven..."_

_Blue eyes as chill as ice they caught the sunlight and gleamed like jagged ice. Hatred poured from the man and made him, despite his holy vestments, a creature hardened and embittered by his loss. The elder curled his lips into a sneer. He leveled his staff against the child before him._

_"Fool! Blasphemous dog! Stand back!"_

_"The spirit of wind serves Martel, not this demon, can't you feel that it's unholy-"_

_"Silence!" The old man swung his staff, and a gasp rose from the crowd as a steel rapier caught and blocked his attack._

_"Back off!" Lloyd growled, meeting the elder's eyes, undaunted. "Colette, go, help Raine!"_

_The Professor was wearily stepping back from a mass of green putrid winds, her staff raised in futile defense at the horrors within. Scared for Raine and for Lloyd, Colette ran up the stairs praying that Martel wouldn't make her trip. And for once it seemed her prayers were answered; for she reached the top of the stair without stumbling. Colette could feel the demon, she could feel it in the smelly winds, and in defiance she muttered a prayer and threw one of her razor sharp chakrams. It seemed to turn gold in the sunlight as it slashed through the chaotic winds. There was a scream, and the evil vortex turned upon her..._

With slow, trembling hands, Colette stroked the steel in her palms. It looked like a dull silver in the light, yet all during the fight with the demons it had seemed to catch the sun's light and become gold. Perhaps what it was... depended on how you looked at it. Colette smiled. Yes, that made plenty of sense. Humming a tune, she wiped away the dull green ichor on the chakram and decided something important: Bugs were yucky, especially demon bugs, which were even more yucky because they were evil.

She was happy to have helped the people of Asgard to get rid of that demon bug, and the people seemed happy too, now that the monster was gone. They were celebrating and having a party and she'd even been invited. But she hadn't gone. She hadn't wanted to go, despite that she'd never really been to a party. Colette didn't want to go to a party where she was in the center of everything. She didn't want them to stare at her and thank her over and over again. She really hadn't done all that much, not really, and no one seemed to believe her when she said that.

The only people who didn't seem happy were Kratos, Lloyd, and the elder of the village. She knew that Kratos was always sad -that was something she was trying really hard to work on so that he'd be happy again- and she wished he wasn't. But Colette knew that when Lloyd and Kratos were together they both seemed to be a little happier; so if Kratos went to see Lloyd like she asked him to, then she knew they'd be all right in a little bit.

As for the elder...

He was sad; a kind of sad-angry-hurt kind of sad. No one would say why. When she asked Aisha and Linar, the two half-elves had looked all nervous and sad too. So she hadn't brought it up again. She thought she knew why the elder was sad though. They said that he used to have a daughter, a little girl, and perhaps she had danced that strange dance on the altar once long ago. If only she had started this Regeneration sooner, if only they had come to Asgard sooner, then perhaps everyone then could have been happy...

Unable to change the past and only able to hope for the future, Colette did so as she rested a hand on the holy crest around her neck and prayed for her Goddess' forgiveness.

X

Genis sighed, then glared at his door. Swordsmen were annoying sometimes, so noisy. The banging at the door across from his room stopped, and Kratos' rumbled threats tapered off. He set aside the history book he was studying, giving up on reading it with a sigh. He was kind of happy that Raine was off with Linar, dealing with her Ruin Mode there and not here... On the other hand, it was the first time they'd ever really been apart for any length of time. It was stupid -- illogical even. Often he'd turn to point something out to her or to ask her a question, only to find that she wasn't there. It was stupid, Genis rationalized, Raine would be back tomorrow. He was the one who'd been stupid, who'd gotten hurt; she was fine and she'd healed him as usual.

But that didn't change the fact that she left , and somehow, seeing her leave with only a parting wave, made him remember Iselia and when she'd left him there too.

Why was she always leaving him behind? Was he that much of a burden?

That thought made his eyes sting, and he gulped down the lump in his throat.

_Stupid and selfish,_ his logic railed at him, _you,_ _Genis Sage, are being a brat. She went because she was needed. It was the same when you went to check on Marble. Did you think of how dangerous it was when you went there? Don't you think Raine worried, and wondered about you when you didn't stay in class or come home right after?_

Honestly, he never had. He then wondered if it had been horrible, those days he'd been late and hadn't said why. Heck, even knowing that she was relatively safe and able to take care of herself...

He worried, and his worry sometimes made him do rash, hotheaded, Lloydish things.

_"No!" Genis sprang in front of the descending claws of the monster, his kendama in front of him. _

_He caught the razor-sharp claws, nearly an inch in length, with the cross that made up the midsection of his weapon. Remembering how Kratos would kick at Lloyd when their blades were locked, Genis lashed out with a foot, and hit steel._

_"Ouch!"he yelped, hopping back to waste a second nursing his foot. A quick glance showed him that the blade had not only cut him but ad ruined his boot._

_"Genis!" Raine screamed, the monster drew back and he gritted his teeth and set his bloody foot to the ground. Claws smashed against his kendama again, and the thing hissed and wrenched its claws to the side. The young sorcerer wasn't letting go of his kendama. Ignoring his bloody foot, he dug in and blinked back tears of pain. He didn't dare let go no matter how much it hurt, because if this thing got through him then there would be nothing left between it and Raine._

_The monster screamed, turned. Colette had fought through the crowd and had run up the steps._

_"Genis, Raine, leave them alone, you bully!"_

_The monster hissed, forgetting him. Gliding on the stinking winds that had summoned it, its steel torso scrapped across the ground occasionally as the whirlwind around it strained to keep it afloat. Its bulk made it bob up and down on a reeking gale._

_There was a clash of steel on steel. Kratos and Lloyd were fighting through the mess of priests that were defending the altar with their lives. He heard Raine chanting, and heard Colette's other chakram hiss through the air._

_A thrown weapon against a creature that could control wind … If it was at least somewhat intelligent the beast would make the winds throw the weapon back. Genis stared at the creature, and saw deadly intellect gleam in those red, slitted eyes. He had to distract it, but how? Fire would be blown out, water turned aside, and his weak earth spells would be pushed away..._

_Sunlight glinted off the steel that made up the monster's torso. The monster was made of hard segmented insect hide. The skeletal frame thinned and shattered where the steel rushed out from the skin. It was as if a massive blade that was larger then him had somehow been thrust through the things torso. Thin strands of muscle and skin wound around the blade, but they were a pale green where the monster itself was a dull green-black. It looked to him like the paler stuff was newly grown and perhaps weak._

_Mentally praying to Martel to not let him die because of this, he muttered a quick spell and lightning crackled around his hands. Gritting his teeth he lunged forward, bulling through the smelly winds. The creature only had time to blink as Genis' glowing hands slapped over the flat of the massive blade..._

Looking down at his hands, remembering the claws that the monster had sank into him in response to his attack, Genis shivered and closed his eyes. The sight got stronger then, making Genis' dark violet eyes snap open at the nightmare he had seen nibbling at his mind. He wasn't going to sleep well tonight; he was going to have a nightmare if he went to sleep now. So he pulled open his book and decided to read. Maybe if he buried himself in the book and fell asleep over it, the nightmares wouldn't come...

Maybe.

X

_**Chosen, it hissed. Chosen, prepare for Martel's highest blessing**. Shaking, her knees knocking together, she saw the angel's hand sprout claws. The green aura flickered and died, leaving the image of an angel behind, the being before her now in its true insectoid form. Smiling at her with a hundred and one jagged little teeth, it hissed. Those soulless red eyes gleamed, drooling for her blood as the hands lifted and pulled back..._

_"No!" Genis shot past the crowd, bringing his kendama in front of him like a shield and entangled the slender, yet lethal claws in his weapon. From a world away, she could hear Lloyd and Kratos fighting, she heard Colette's defiance. Roaring, the beast rocked on it's steel abdomen, Genis scrambled out of the way of that steel blade and the beast reached down. Genis was lifted then thrown aside like refuse. Still twitching from the effects of the lightning spell, the beast seemed as if it were going to kill the one who'd dare inflict such pain on it_

_Only after she had breathed her last would the thing dare..._

_She stood in front of her shivering brother, lifted the bead and feather shrouded staff in front of her, cursing the artifacts weakness and poor balance. She swung the jewel tipped weapon, and the demon took the hit and floated backwards out of range of her attack, hissing angrily._

_"Leave my brother alone," she whispered, her violet eyes flashing with barely contained rage._

_Needle teeth gnashed in response, while the slender clawed appendages that might have been called hands –though no hands she knew of sported only three fingers- snapped calling forth a reeking gale with a single gesture. Digging her staff into a crack between the stone, she stood against the attack, despite the savage invisible claws that seemed to hide in the winds and slash at her face and robes. Raine cried out in pain, gritting her teeth, and choking down the cry, swearing not to give the thing the satisfaction of knowing that she hurt._

_Her lack of conveniently dying made the creature turn a darker shade of green. It hissed, flexing its claws to summon the wind again. Raine wearily wiped the blood out from her eyes and staggered forward, her staff leading..._

_She was too slow; the monster was finished with its spell! It leveled its longest claw at her..._

_"Guardian!"_

_Lloyd seemed to have materialized out of nowhere, almost like magic or an answered prayer. He stood there, calm, and almost at peace, his twin blades crossed before him, while the razor wind tried – and failed – to penetrate the blue shield. The mana died just as the attack faded, and the swordsman grimly took a step back._

_"Professor, heal Genis and yourself, I got 'im!"_

_So she retreated, taking the bloody, battered Genis in her arms and coaxing his body to heal itself spell._

_"Sis..." He coughed weakly in her arms._

_"It's alright I'm here now..." She spent a moment to stroke his hair and he smiled, for a second both forgetting where they were._

_The ring of steel on steel brought her back to reality. She gasped in shock as Lloyd rose both his blades over his head, taking the over hand chop of the monsters lower half with crossed twin blades. Grunting, Lloyd tried to stagger back, so he could uncross his blades, but hanging upside down, the monster reached out with one hand and wrapped its fingers around Lloyd's wrists._

_"Hey, let go!" Lloyd tugged, while the demonic creature thurst out with its free hand, summoning a stream of violent wind that poured from its appendage. Lloyd managed to cry out once before he was literally blown across the altar._

_He smashed into the stones at the very edge of the altar, grunting, as the wind was knocked out of him, Lloyd stared numbly at the world around him, ready to slide into unconsciousness. Silver blue light shimmered around him, granting him what appeared to be an angelic aura for all of a moment. Raine snapped her gaze over to Kratos, the mercenary chanted, with a wave of his shield hand the man dismissed the light._

_"Keep your guard up, boy!" Kratos snapped._

_"How am I supposed to guard against that!" Lloyd whined, his strength returning. He snatched up one of his blades from the ground, the other had gone over the edge and he didn't bother wasting time in going after it._

_"Stop them, they are desecrating the altar!" One of the priests howled._

_"Idiots..." Kratos growled to himself, then he drew in a great breath and roared. "People of Asgard, behold your so called angel!"_

_Then he cast his shield aside and mimed the throwing of a spear. Lightning laced from his digits, smashing into the wind, causing the wild air to cease its movements. The demon stood without its obscuring winds, while the priesthood of Asgard and its people, gasped in horror._

_Screaming the monster rocked back and forth in agony, then hissing as it prepared to fight again, summoning another whirlwind._

_"Hey, ax butt, over here!" Lloyd screamed and the beast turned on him._

_"Ax butt?" Kratos' voice had a suspicious waver to it._

_Genis laughed and Raine put a finger to her twitching lips._

_As the winds rushed at Lloyd, Colette threw her chakrams at the monster. It yelped at the stinging pain, turning towards its other assailant, and Lloyd was able to use the second's distraction to leap to the side._

_When the monster moved to attack Colette, Lloyd's catcall made it whirl on him in rage._

_"You can't hit me, you're too slooooow!"_

_Another gust of wind missed. The creature was so intent on killing Lloyd that it had actually turned its back on the rest of them._

_"You're so slow you'd miss a sna-!"_

_Lloyd was hit dead on with the next blast and smashed up against a pillar. The demon grinned in satisfaction._

_Kratos and Raine winced, while Genis laughed evilly at the sight. Colette merely threw her last ring, which buried itself into the creature's back. With a scream the beast turned on the Chosen, Lloyd's antics were completely forgotten now._

_"Oww..." Groaning the Iselian swordsman pulled himself to his feet. Raine sent a quick spell his way, so that he could shake off the pain a little faster. He caught her eye, smiled his thanks, then picked his remaining sword from the ground and staggered after the monster. Kratos had already charged and was taking the beast head on. Colette dashed around the altar looking for a ring that wasn't bent or shattered._

_Raine's eyes darted around the ruins. All around, scrawled on every inch of pillar were runes: symbols of protection from an old order. This was a site of containment, and if they could get the creature to stand in the center of the altar where it had appeared, perhaps the spell, despite its decay, might force the demon back into slumber..._

_"Everyone if we get the monster in the center of the altar it might be forced back..."_

_"No. What if someone accidentally turns it on again? We're finishing this!" Lloyd snapped._

_Kratos nodded, delivering a brutal two-handed swing that made the monster rock back on the tip of its ax butt..._

_Ax butt?_

_Wonderful, marvelous, Lloyd's word choice was starting to prove catchy..._

_(Spoilers about Sage heritage do not read if you have not gotten to Tethe'alla bridge scene yet)_

"Ms. Sage?"

Raine shook herself, forcing herself back to the here and now, looking up at the indigo-haired half-elf. She somehow managed a smile, setting aside her text for the time being. She pulled out the chair beside her, offering it to Linar. Linar took it with a slight smile. He spent a moment going over her notes, then added his own to her pile.

"I'm sorry, Linar, my mind wandered for a bit." She rubbed her eyes as a bit of smoke tried to drift into them and make them shut.

"It's all right, Ms. Sage, it _is_ nearly midnight after all..."

The room was dark, almost murky and lair like, the only thing not making it a lair was the multitude of books and papers. The sight of those things brought her comfort, telling her that as strange a place as it was, this cavern was a library. Amongst the multitude of books and warm candle light she felt more at home.

On the table, surrounded by papers, manuscripts, and charcoal transfers taken from the temple in Triet, Thoda, and the Asgard caves, she sighed. She loved her work, but so much had happened – and was happening -- that her mind couldn't help but drift back to the one glaring inconsistency. It pitted her current hypothesis against what she knew of the Angels. The demons that lay in each seal were there to test the Chosen's loyalty to her cause, but to place a demon in a town miles away from where the real seal was... That wasn't a test, it seemed almost like torture. To release the seal like normal, to go to the temple, tend Colette through the next stage of her transformation, then to return to find Asgard little more then a ruin...

It didn't make sense, if she was right it would debunk every theory on the angels that the people of Sylvarant cherished. She shied away from thoughts like that. Martel existed, her angels were real, so too must be her mercy.

"I need to thank you, for understanding the circumstances that surround my brother and myself," she said slowly, mentally stuffing her sacrilegious thoughts into the darkest recess of her mind.

"It's not a problem. I'm sorry Harvy almost uh... let the cat out of the bag. He's always blunt and takes pride in what he is..."

"Caution and discretion aren't part of his vocabulary." Raine smiled slightly. "I've noticed that myself, there's no reason to apologize, no one was hurt by his lapse."

'_He always takes pride in what he is' _what pride could be taken from tainted blood, from ancestry such as her and her brother's?

In her mind she saw the Desians, saw Magnius bloated on his cruelty and hatred. It was hard not to become like that, to hate those that hated them. It was so hard when their shortsighted bigotry made her angry. Taking a deep breath, she contained her anger then looked down at the notes. She had promised herself to get this done in one night and she would get it done in one night, no matter if she didn't get any sleep.

X

Lloyd paced up and down the room, his mercenary cape flapping in the small self-made breeze of his motion. Back and forth, back and forth. From his bed Kratos watched the restless pacing, listened to the damning rustle of fabric. He was slowly going insane -- not from the questions Lloyd pressed to the night air, but the damned cape! It never bothered him when he wore it, but the sheer repetitive, endless, snap of cape cutting through air was slowly driving him mad. He recalled another companion that had paced back and forth in their rooms, although the other man's cape was made so it was almost a two-piece cape, making twice as much racket. "Does she love me, will she accept me when I can't even accept..." It was almost as bad as listening to Lloyd challenge the very order of this world. Growling, he put a pillow over his head and even that did not muffle the noise sufficiently.

"Lloyd, stop," Kratos rasped, and Lloyd hopped in surprise. Yes, he knew it was dark, but the boy should have been more aware then to hop out of his skin when his "sleeping" companion suddenly talked to him.

"I'm sorry... I didn't realize I was keeping you up..." Lloyd blushed and Kratos sighed, pulled his head out from under the pillow so he could adequately rub his temples.

"You've kept me up for the past two hours. Why do you ask those questions when you can't find the damned answer?"

"Why shouldn't I ask when something feels wrong?" Lloyd snapped thensighed. "I'm sorry. It's just driving me crazy..."

"Really... that would imply that you are sane to begin with." Kratos smirked.

"Was that a sneaky dumb joke?"

Kratos chuckled, and was about to say that sane did not mean dumb...

"You jerk!" Lloyd flared and threw the pillow. Kratos rolled to dodge the attack but accidentally rolled too much and fell out of the bed. "Ha, you aren't a swordsman, you're a klutz!"

"What did you say?" Kratos snarled, pushing off the floor.

Even downed Kratos must have been intimidating because Lloyd gulped at his elder.

"N...nothing..."

"Hurmph." Kratos stood, and considered Lloyd. The boy's frustration and excess of energy could get him in trouble if he didn't properly give it a proper channel. Still, the way the boy was acting; it was like he didn't know how. "Enough playing, get your swords. We are going outside."

"Outside, swords, it's like..." Lloyd stared at the moon's place in the sky. "Five hours till dawn."

"Do you want to spar?"

Lloyd frowned then nodded. "Maybe that'll help. Sparring always seems to help." Lloyd grinned. "Kicking your butt all the time is kinda fun."

"Indeed." Kratos raised an eyebrow. "I see I have yet another illusion I need to break in you. And the proper word choice is _kind of_ or _enjoyable_ not _kinda_."

"Kratos, don't Raine-talk me too! You're as bad as the Professor and Genis!" Kratos only offered a flat stare and Lloyd squirmed under the intense scrutiny. "Alright… alright I'll work on talking all smart-like, does that make you happy?"

Kratos' face twitched, indicating he was not happy, nor did he appreciate Lloyd's humor.

Lloyd laughed sheepishly. "Come on Kratos, it was just a joke."

Kratos only crossed his arms in front of him and glared.

"Is this about the door, I apologized already!" Lloyd cried out, the mercenary only went to the door that had been locked earlier, and pulled it open. "Kraatoos..." Lloyd whined, but the mercenary only closed the door behind him. Even the hall he could still hear the boy running around trying to get his sword and gear ready. In the hall, alone for most of those in the inn were asleep, he allowed himself to smile. On foresight Lloyd's prank was harmless, a little annoying but...

All right, it was a great deal annoying, and despite the comradery between them, there were limits of what he'd tolerate. Once, long ago, there would not have been a limit, but time had passed and for good or ill he had reverted to his old habits. The door opened behind him, and his hand drifted to his sword. Turning he took a deep breath and released the hilt of his weapon. He turned only to stare at Lloyd, who was -to Kratos' immense shock- dressed in his mercenary blacks.

"What? My red shirts are dirty," Lloyd grumbled, then lost his sour mood almost instantly. "Come on let's go already!"

Warm –human- hands wrapped over his wrist and forearm. He was all but dragged down the shadow-choked the hall by an overly enthused Lloyd. Heavens knows where they were going (certainly Lloyd had no idea) but Lloyd's enthusiasm, while not catchy to the somber mercenary, was still a powerful force. It swept him up and took them both away to the star streaked darkness beyond the inn.

X

_It writhed; thunder numbed its ears even as lightning danced in its blood and made it jerk spasmodically to the sky fire's song. Its voice a high-pitched whine that hurt their ears, the monster lifted its bloody and bruised arms to the heavens…_

_And from heavens came a reeking gale of corruption. The tainted storm picked up the dust and sand that threatened to clog the lungs and choke them all. Hacking, Kratos covered his face with an arm. His knees gave way and the stinging howling wind made his eyes squint shut and tears leak past the thin slits as he cringed behind his shield. His lungs burned, breathing hurt, and his voice to speak that pain, was stolen by the screaming winds._

_"No!" Lloyd's scream cut through the gale, slashed into his soul and the pain in the boy's tone broke him of his paralysis. Gritting his teeth the mercenary pushed off ground, his shield scraping against the stone altar. His eyes burned as he forced his eyes to widen, staring at the twin shapes, the twin shadows, in the hellish brown mists…_

_Steel scraped against claws. Kratos staggered forward, his cape snapping out behind him, clogged with sand. Kratos cursed. The cape was slowing him down..._

_Kratos paused for only a second, shearing off the cape's collar tip with his sword. Once it was done, he trudged grimly forward, sword in hand, his eyes opened wide and staring into the air-born hell that this monster had brought down, that the Angels decreed befall the humans of this _

_city._

_Damn them, damn them all, the humans, the angels. They denied him, slowed him down!_

_"Hold on, Lloyd, I'm coming," Kratos tried to call through the winds, but all he got for his efforts was a mouthful of sand and a vile taste as if someone had rammed a rotten bone into his mouth._

X

"Hey--" A hand poked him. Kratos growled, and swatted the annoyance aside. " --Sylvarant to Kratos Aurion, it's Lloyd Irv-"

"I am awake," Kratos snapped, his distant eyes seemed to flash as the awareness behind them focused on the here and now. "I was distracted by my thoughts, that's all."

"Umm, how does that happen?"

Kratos stared at the black-clad child and raised an eyebrow. "You are serious about that question I see," he muttered. How he'd managed to keep the young swordsman in a mental state comparable to mere infanthood despite fourteen years having passed...

The thought was unfair to Lloyd, a bit cruel perhaps: but there were times when Lloyd still seemed only to be five years old.

"How do you deal with a problem?" Kratos asked.

"How's that make any sense?"

"Just follow the idea. It will make sense in a moment if you actually exercise some patience."

"Hehe.. sorry…" Lloyd rubbed at the back of his head, his red gloved hands disappearing in the nest of chestnut-hued locks. "So how do I deal with a problem? Well it depends on the problem."

"Imagine a serious problem, a large, serious, possibly life threatening problem." Kratos sighed, annoyed that he had to basically walk the boy through a concept that he had had an answer to since he was twelve. "How do you handle it?"

"Is it threatening me or someone else?"

Kratos checked the impulse to pull his hair and snarl a few profanities towards Dirk. How could Dirk have made so many mistakes while parenting Lloyd that the dwarf stunted this child's mental development? The only outward sign of his gathering anger was a slight tightening of the skin around his eyes and ever-so-slight cooling of his tone.

"Both. First you than someone else."

"Well if it's just me I deal with it on my own. If it's someone else and there's time, I'll go to someone else who's smarter and can think faster than me to handle it. If not, then I'll handle it."

"Define handle." Kratos sighed.

"Well, if it's a problem that needs to be fought over, I'll fight over it, if it's not I guess I'll try to talk."

"'You guess you'll try to talk'?" Kratos' tone turned the statement into a question. Lloyd frowned, staring at the mess of rocks that served as the ground outside the inn.

"I've never really been in a situation where swords or fists weren't the answer."

"Is that because swordsmanship is really the only answer, or because you cannot comprehend an answer besides violence?"

Lloyd winced at that.

"It's not like you can reason with a Desian, like you can reason with someone who's beating up someone else!" Lloyd snapped, anger replacing shame in a heartbeat.

"Have you ever tried?" Kratos whispered. He met those angry eyes that once could have been the twins of his own. Lloyd lost his anger as he stared at the new –and startling- idea in the face.

"You can't reason sometimes, sometimes you have to do something." Lloyd protested.

"Knowing when to act and how to act is important, Lloyden, more important than any action by itself. Your rashness has led to death, and it has offered life and hope to those without either." Kratos looked pointedly at the altar. The fire had gone out long ago and only greasy smoke hung over the air. "As I said before: action without strength or thought -no matter how good intentioned- will lead to tragedy."

"Can lead to tragedy--" Lloyd too stared at the altar "--may lead to tragedy, and sometimes it doesn't."

"Would you trust the lives of others to mere luck?"

Lloyd swallowed, and looked a little sick.

"I don't want to, but well… Come on Kratos, you're smart but that's just not me. Genis, you, Raine, Colette -- even Noishe -- are smarter than me!"

"I learned to read and write when I was twenty-one. I was more ignorant than a child about the world around me. Cold-blooded, calculating, I could manipulate people with my blade and strength of arm. I was content with that until I realized just how much I didn't know, how weak my not knowing made me, how crippling ignorance really could be--" Kratos' lips quirked into a dark smile as he looked back to a time he could only see. "--I was the mirror image of my sire. There wasn't a beast in the world or under it that he couldn't bring to its knees if he only swung his fist hard enough. He learned better, however, after stabbed a knife into his back."

Lloyd's mouth sagged open in shock. "You… killed your Dad?"

"He had just killed my mother. I thought the action… fitting at the time--" A hint of steel crept into the mercenary's tone. "--and that… man wasn't my Father. The swordsman Clarn was. I met him after I had turned in a group of brigands that had been an annoying thorn in the northern region's side. He trained me as a swordsman and hunter. During one of my jobs, I learned how to read from a client that could not pay me the proper amount of Gald."

"Kratos…" Lloyd was torn, between horror, shock, and sickness. How could someone kill their own father? But then again, how could someone not avenge their mom after they watched her die? What are you trying to say?"

"You would be surprised how the knowledgeable learn, how the wise become wise. It might not be a matter of how much your mind can hold, that might not be it at all…" Kratos turned from the child, unable to look Lloyd in the eyes after what he'd just confessed to. "It's not what is known, or unknown, but what you make of what you have. Using both, striving forward, you will find either damnation or salvation. Remember?"

That word brought to them both the scent of winter touched wind on a spring night, the image of a shadowed grave behind a dwarf's house, and the talk that had occurred there. Seeing the thoughtful look balancing the look of horror Kratos nodded in satisfaction. He wasn't needed any longer, so he began to walk out of Asgard.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"If you need me you'll know how to look for me," Kratos snapped, eager to get away from those damning, innocent eyes.

X

_They eye of a storm is deathly still. Surrounded by chaos, there is one point of utter calm: it is the calm of broken sanity; the shattered remains of the mind. It was the calm of the dead, an icy repose. In the gales' heart, he found the customary stillness broken._

_Lloyd rolled to the side, even as the monsters' bladed abdomen came crashing down, shearing into the stone less than an inch away. Freezing, lone blade in hand, Lloyd seemed to shake himself and he made a slow retreat. The thin sword was raised over his head to catch any incoming blows as he tried valiantly to get some room to deliver any form of counter attack, while trying not to step past the boundaries of stillness and get lost in the howling winds._

_"Demon Fang!" Lloyd sent a rippling wave of silver power from his sword across the ground._

_Hissing the beast pushed off the ground -lacking legs while having an abundance of wind mana served it well in that regard- it spun through the air, so that its blade would land first with all its formidable weight behind it. Lloyd locked his legs and braced himself._

_Pulling a dagger from his belt, Kratos lined up and threw. The creature turned, writhed in agony, and missed its target by mere millimeters. With a cry of shock, Lloyd staggered back, blade falling from numb arms, landing on his rump._

_Jaws parted, the lipless mouth opened to reveal a mess of saliva, slick teeth, and a fire-red tongue that fit well with the creature's hellish eyes. With a snap of its claws, it summoned another gust of cutting wind._

_Growling, Kratos lowered his head, charging into the monster's spell, his blade leading. Somehow, defying all nature, he caught a fragment of the cutting wind, carrying it under his blade. By will and sheer perseverance he took spell after spell, ignoring the red lines that now ran down his sword like stripes. His sword glowing a brilliant emerald green as it pierced through the exoskeleton even as the winds rushed through him and ripped the wound wider than it should have been._

_Unfortunately, the small gale he summoned with the blade and mind, did not push them apart. Kratos lifted his shield and staggered back as the creature's slash that was aimed for his face went through the steel and drew lines of crimson down his shield arm._

_The beast stiffened as a rapier slid into its lowered guard and made a green-tipped point prick out from where its heart should have been. Staggering back in horror, Lloyd released the hilt of his sword staring at the monster even as the beast stared back at him. The demon let out a shrill whine that made its shoulders bob up and down with what only could have been mirth._

_Grunting, the beast ripped the sword out of itself and tossed the length of steel aside. With one final scream it pointed to the ground and the runes nearest to it, hissingas aweird green light spilled from them. The light became a small storm, like boiling water would jet from a geyser, while biting wind flowed from the earth and rose and spread out from the beast in each cardinal direction._

_"Scatter!" Kratos roared, snatching up the boy's rapier, hoping that with the earlier storm calming, he might be heard. Cries from the Chosen and the elves, told him that he had been heard by those who mattered. As for the humans of Asgard, he did not care, for they brought their fate upon themselves. Cursing, Lloyd skidded to a stop less then five feet from a pillar with the image of the spirit of wind. The logical move would have been to go around or dive to the side. Of course, Lloyd -never one for relying on logic when bull headed stubbornness would suffice- ran up the pillar. Eventually, gravity would bring him down, setting him less than three feet from the beast._

_"Lloyd!" Kratos threw the rapier and prayed that the boy would catch it hilt first for an impossible strike..._

_"Lightning!" A child's voice cried out, a thread of silver snapped across the space between one side of the altar to the other in a heartbeat. The monster -who had raised one clawed hand to catch the blow and had set the other to meet the wild and reckless attack with a thrust of its own- hesitated. _

_Roaring out the words of a lightning spell, Kratos sent a bolt of mana. and with perfect precision hit the edge of Lloyd's descending strike. With all the force of his jump behind him, sword blazing with Kratos' spell, Lloyd buried his sword into the monster's skull with the ease of a knife passing through a tattered cloth._

_Spilling green blood and other unidentifiable substances upon the holy altar of the angels, the demon spread its arms in a mocking benediction. Then the green fire that licked at the runes went out, the storm stilled, and the tainted mana along with its master at long last died..._

(spoilers, don't read if you haven't finished the game!)

"I'm not mad, I just… I need to think it over that's all."

"Lloyden…"

Colette's greeting to Lloyd froze in her throat. She stood by the door way leading from the stables –and a much more groomed Noshy- held in total stillness by her shock. The Chosen was startled to hear Kratos' voice filled with such a soft unspeakable emotion, and shocked that she had not heard him before since the gift of her father allowed her to hear everything else. Unable or perhaps not wanting to move, she listened with ears that felt too keen to be her own.

"I expect no less from you. Honestly, I would be disappointed if you calmly took the fact that I murdered my sire in stride and accepted me with no reservations. If you want nothing to do with me now that you know I will under-."

"Kratos." Lloyd's voice was serious! He was using his serious tone, the one that was a little scary sometimes! Colette cringed into the darkness despite the fact he wasn't using his serious tone on her. "Shut up. I said I was going to think, not turn on you. It… bothers me, but then again, a lot bothers me." Lloyd let out a dry laugh that sounded really Kratos-like. "I have to figure it out, but then I guess you do too huh?"

"I've figured it out already, Lloyden, a long time ago."

"Well then it's my turn." There was a shrug marked by a rustle of cloth, maybe a cape. Unable to see from her hiding place Colette could only guess. "I'm gunna turn in, are you…?"

"Not yet."

"Then I'll leave the door open, or maybe I won't." Lloyd's tone had an "I'm smiling" sound to it, and maybe it was catchy because Kratos chuckled.

"If that door is locked you'll have to buy a new one after I turn the old to tinder."

Lloyd yawned. "Whatever, Kratos."

Colette heard heavy bootfalls tromp past her hiding place. Lloyd's shadow stretched out and blended with the gloom of her hiding place, and right before it would have drifted out of the range of her vision, Lloyd stopped.

"Ya know, I don't hate you. I don't understand, not fully, but I don't hate you. I won't turn on you and I won't take back… what I said yesterday. Not ever. So, sorry if that disappoints you."

"Lloyden…" Kratos' voice had a hint of strain to it. Though what made Kratos' voice sound all strange, Colette couldn't tell. "Lloyden--" Again with the soft name, the gentle tone filled with sadness. "--you should not act so rash, you should consider…"

"I have. _Asatha'lle Kra'sean."_

"_Asatha'luse Lloyden."_

Lloyd's heavy footfalls tramped up the stairs and Colette could hear the mercenary shift around. Kratos' sword clinked, his cape rippled and stirred through the slight breeze brought by shifting from foot to foot, and there was the sound of a small chain brushing against cloth. There was a click from the other side of the inn, a creek of a door turning on rusty hinges, when that door squeaked shut Kratos cleared his throat.

Wincing while feeling horrible for accidentally eavesdropping, Colette slinked out from the darkness and cringed under Kratos' unblinking stare.

"Good evening, Chosen, or rather, good _morning,_ Chosen."

"_Asakanna'lus, Kratos,_" Colette murmured, staring at the wooden floor which at least didn't silently judge her with that intense gaze. "_Mer phan, mereth…_"

"You don't need to apologize. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is all, and mischance is rarely a sin."

"Eavesdropping is." Colette blushed and she heard Kratos shrug.

"As if I care what your Goddess sees as a sin? You should go to bed, Chosen One, tomorrow we will learn of the next seal and be off."

"I... can't sleep," Colette whispered, still staring at the wooden floorboards. Having said it, the words came out again, this time choked by a muffled sob. "_I can't sleep_."

Kratos shifted and Colette looked up, the mercenary's normally emotionless face was marred by a slight frown. He opened his mouth to say something cold; there was a hardness to his black eyes that told her he was going to be mean. But then by the starlight she saw something worse than meanness. The man's look was calculating and cruel, and the heavens shed their magnificence to illuminate the man's face so that she could see it at long last.

Kratos looked like a Desian.

Shivering, Colette took a step back, her hands closed over the inner side of her chakrams. All it would take would be one tug then they'd be free and she would be safe -- or safer, anyways.

Kratos' eyes glittered in the starlight, but they did not gleam with a hint of warmth as they would when the man talked to Lloyd. For a heartbeat, the light was as cold and impersonal as a shard of flawed onyx catching the light just right. The moment passed and soundlessly Kratos closed his mouth to stare at her. To stare at the weapons that she in her terror had drawn.

The man's words hung between them, unspoken but somehow known.

_Go back and try. Don't bother me with your stupidity. Just lie down and be still if you can't sleep. I don't have time to deal with you._

_I don't care enough to even try…_

"Chosen-" He wasn't a half-elf: he was a human. That didn't mean he wasn't a Desian though. "-what is wrong?"

"Stay away!" She lifted her razor-sharp throwing rings and stepped back wearily.

He did not follow, only stared at her in shock. Seeming to shake himself Kratos' eyes narrowed.

"You are ill, distressed. I will fetch Raine."

"What are you?"

"I am a mercenary, Chosen One, a swordsman."

Colette felt her knees knocking together, wanted nothing more then to do then collapse in terror. Something kept her standing, though. Maybe it was the same courage that kept her standing when she knew that a monster would come from the light of an altar; maybe it was the same courage that made her accept the trials of the Chosen without flinching. Somehow, she kept on her feet and Kratos only stared at her with his unblinking black eyes.

"You're lying," she whispered, her lips trembling as she blinked back tears. Never had anyone lied to her -not anyone she liked- and it hurt now like nothing else had ever hurt before.

"I do not lie. Your illness makes illusions that you take as truth." Kratos shifted a bit, angling himself in her general direction. To what? She didn't know why. She rolled the flat part of her lucky chakram in her right hand, her fingers stopping at the thicker part of the inner circle of the ring.

"You pretend to sleep like me, but you don't. I've never heard you sleep," Colette whispered, her hand clenching.

"I sleep." His face was cold, distant, and maybe it was the way the light caught his hair, or maybe it was because she finally realized that the courage she was drawing on did come from the monsters that the angels set against her for her trails, but for whatever reason, she felt something come into the light, something that was maybe never meant to come into it.

"Are you sleepy now?"

"My concern for your health overrides any need of the moment." Kratos' hand slipped over the hilt of his blade. He had her trapped, the wall was to her back and he was slowly closing the distance between them one step at a time. "I apologize, Chosen One, but your hysteria is so advanced that I must knock you unconscious so you don't hurt yourself during my absence."

Colette shivered. So cold, so dead were Kratos' eyes. They had the same eyes, empty, cold, Kratos and Remiel…

"You don't eat," Colette continued. "Don't take one more step or I'll…" she lifted her weapon and Kratos froze at the threat.

"You don't eat," Colette repeated slowly, staring at the being before her in terror, "and when I stopped being able to you made sure Raine gave me smaller bits of food so I could hide them easier."

"I don't eat," Kratos admitted with a slight quirk of his lips."Or rather, I do not eat as much as your companions. And whenever Raine cooks I make sure everyone gets smaller pieces of… the substance she passes off as edible."

"When anyone cooks…"

Kratos remained silent, than let out a deep breath. "I saw that you were incapable of eating. I knew you were getting sick when you tried. So -to answer your question- yes, I helped you by offering you smaller servings."

"In Palma Costa, you threw away both our food. That wasn't an accident. At the geyser, everywhere, you do the same thing."

Kratos nodded, pulled the hair out of his face and she could see the ironic smile curling his lips.

"What of it, Chosen? What does it tell you?"

"I… I don't know."

"No, you don't want to know-" Kratos shrugged "-that is your decision." He stared at her with his hard, distant eyes. "Go to bed Chosen."

Back at the beginning, back to where they started, a Chosen and a Desian talking to each other at the Fresco Inn. Colette didn't want it like that, didn't want to travel with someone who was a Desian. She was supposed to forgive and accept -- all Chosen's were supposed to -- but she wasn't a good Chosen because she knew in her heart that she could not accept traveling with someone horrible and evil.

"I can't sleep." It came out as a soft croak.

"No, I imagine you can't."

"I can't go to bed if I can't sleep, it's too noisy and still, and it hurts…"

She heard Kratos' breath hitch, she saw for just one second a flash of remembrance, of understanding, then the mask came down and all emotion was hidden again.

"Did you expect trials to be easy, Chosen?" Kratos' voice twisted darkly to match the sneer on his face. "Did you expect life to be easy for you?"

"I expected…" She gulped back her tears, nearly choked on them. "That you would care… because…they did this to you…"

The ice broke. He visibly cringed at that and stared at her with shame in his eyes. It didn't matter, nothing mattered except the Regeneration. And if she didn't matter to him... well, he didn't matter to her. She sobbed and sank to her knees crying. Colette was horrified by the pure selfishness of her last thought, sickened by the fact she might have actually hurt Kratos… Suddenly, warm hands wrapped around her shoulders, pulled her up a little so that she rested her chin on a shoulder. She bowed her head and cried all the more, her chakrams slipping through her fingers, hissing as the razor edge sank into wood.

"_Mer… phan…_" Colette croaked out amongst the few tears that could make it past her eyes.

"It's alright, Colette…" Kratos murmured. He rocked her back and forth slowly as if she were the youngest of children. "Everything is forgiven. I was being a bastard. If anyone should apologize it should be me."

"I... wasn't very nice either…" Colette gulped.

"I, however, started it, and I will hear no more attempts on your half to apologize. So, you can not sleep?"

"N…no, I can't…"

"You would be surprised how common an ailment that is," Kratos' murmured, smoothing down her golden locks with a trembling hand. "When I cannot sleep I count the stars. No life -I've found- is long enough to count them all."

"You count the stars every night with Lloyd."

Kratos sighed, released her.

"Yes, well… that is different."

"Does it make you sleep?" Colette whispered, hope shinning in her eyes.

"No." Kratos swallowed. "Nothing does. I haven't slept for as long as you've lived child. I will never sleep, and I probably never will until long after you've died."

"Oh…" Colette shivered. Looking at him now, Kratos' didn't seem very Desian-ish. Maybe he wasn't a Desian -or like the Desian's- after all.

"If trouble comes, call out." Kratos stood, and she hesitantly took his hand. "My ears are as keen as yours, perhaps more so. Life on the edge-" Kratos' lips quirked into a mocking smile as he soundlessly laughed at all the others who didn't understand, "-you understand?"

Colette nodded. She understood in all the ways he asked her to understand. While Kratos' smile wasn't a completely nice smile, she found her lips had curled up too.

"Good." Kratos went to the stairs and at the base of them paused. "The heavens are yours, Colette: the golden streaked birthing of dawn; the sapphire blue day; the hazy, fading pallet of twilight, and all that comes after. So says the prophecy of your Book. _Asatha'lle, Chosen."_

"_Asatha'luse, Derris fa Gothson."_

Kratos twitched and glared at her. She only smiled, gave him a twinkling wave of one hand, and then slipped outside. But even with the door closed he knew she could hear his grumble. "Do I have a shovel? Do I adore plants?"

"No," Colette giggled, "but that would look funny."

She knew he heard but he didn't respond save for an annoyed "hurmph".

X

(Spoilers done)

"_Ceeri, sananah suva derrisee?"_

"_Quenen sanan suva derris." Kratos corrected._

"It was really close though, Lloyd!" Colette chirped.

"Why do I have to start on some dumb hymns?" Lloyd huffed. "You know, when I learned dwarven it was just normal talk that I learned."

"Say it right and we'll go on," Kratos growled, rather worn out with the whining and griping that Lloyd was showering them both with.

"Lloyd's too dumb to learn Angelic, Kratos," Genis sighed. "I don't know how Dirk did it, but Raine's been trying to teach Lloyd fractions for years and he still hasn't picked it up."

Lloyd muttered something under his breath and Kratos' eyes widened.

"Tell me you are jesting."

"Wha.. umm, no. He made me skip meals until I got it right." Lloyd winced as the mercenary's eyes grew steel sharp. Taking one look at Kratos' ticked face he knew that the only way to keep both Dads was to keep his Dwarf Dad away from his Adopted Human Dad. "Really, it was only two meals out of three, and on hard lessons I'd only lose one meal out of the day if I got it wrong…"

Kratos muttered something in advanced Angelic and Colette paled.

"Kratos, that wasn't very nice!"

"I'm not nice most of the time, or have you failed to notice?"

Lloyd blinked; it was the first time ever that Colette didn't call Kratos 'Mr. Kratos' or 'Mr. Aurion'. Well, that was nice, they were getting along, since Colette being formal with someone meant that she wasn't comfortable around them. Now that she was acting more normal around the mercenary, that meant she was happier around the black clad man, which in turn seemed to make everyone else warm to Kratos a little more…

Unfortunately, what wasn't nice was every time he thought of something not angelic related during lessons his ex-sphere shocked him. Just like… ow! Damn it, that hurt!

Colette and Kratos were arguing about using "bad words" in a holy language and whether it was blas… blos… unholy or not. Since everyone was busy -Kratos and Colette were arguing and Kratos' use of swear words was making Colette sputter and Genis was on the other side of the room snuggling with the green furred "couch" with a handful of notes on hand that the "couch" was reading- Lloyd spent a moment talking to his tormentor.

"Stupid rock…" Lloyd flexed his fingers. "Let up would you?"

A thin pulse of warmth tinged with a hint of electricity told him he better get on the ball or he'd get shocked even more.

"You know, Genis' ex-sphere isn't nasty with him."

He could have sworn, just for a second that a woman laughed, and a feeling of pleasant warmth ran out from the stone and took away the pain. Then, just to remind him that he should be paying attention whenever Kratos talked, the stone sent a teasing small shock down his arm.

"Alright… I'll be good… but don't get mad at me if I get it all wrong."

The sense of laughter and warmth increased and kind of buzzed in the back of his mind, which made focusing on the lesson harder. But at least the stone wasn't zapping him now.

X

"All right," Kratos hissed, "bare basics. We'll start with basics and skip sentence structure, history, and contagions, throwing all logic to the winds! If that's what it takes to make you stop whining, then fine!"

Kratos was ticked, Genis cringed against Noishe and the dog whined at Kratos as if to protest.

"You deal with this for hours on end. My Gods boy, you are stubborn. I've never met anyone who's out stubborned me before."

Kratos pointedly ignored Noishe's argumentative "Bark!" and the "Yip whine whiiine" comment.

No one however could ignore the next string of "sounds" from Noishe.

"Whiiine yip baba bark, whine bark bark!"

Genis stared up at the dog shocked.

"Lloyd, is that the "two love birds in a tree" song?"

"Huh?" Lloyd looked up from his notes and looked at Noishe. "Oh yeah, he barks it every time I, uh, stay after school to hang with Colette. Ignore him, he'll shut up eventually."

"That or I'll make him," Kratos hissed. The man's brown eyes seemed red in the fire light, but that might have been the effects of the faint blush around the mercenary's cheeks.

"Whiine!"

"One more word and I will throw a fire spell."

"Yipe!" Noishe put his paws over his head and cowered.

"So when's Raine coming back?" Genis gulped, a little nervous since Kratos's death glare was fixed on

Noishe and Genis was being clipped by it.

"The note was vague, evasive, and it read she'd be conducting a cross examination of the meaning of the tablet with the scriptures Linar unearthed."

Noishe helpfully whistled two teasing notes through his fangs.

"So it is my guess..." Kratos speared the dog with a look filled with promised violence at a later date. "... three or four days at most."

"A ruin nutty teacher in a ruin filled town," Lloyd grumbled. "We're going to be here forever, how can you just say four days?"

"That's the amount of time I will remain here, any longer than that, I'm leaving and taking the three of you with me."

"Whine!"

"Fine, the four of you with me…"

"Why would you take us?" Genis frowned.

"Imagine a lecture, Raine in full ruin-mode, with hundreds of ruins on hand and the intent to make a tour of it for 'educational purposes' with her beloved pupils in tow."

Genis, Noishe, and Lloyd, shuddered in horror while Colette looked at them all in confusion.

"Does it have to be four days? How about a day?" Lloyd protested.

"That's a tempting preposition… add on to it…" Kratos' eyes glittered with a bit of humor.

"What -bribe you-? Well, how's twenty gald sound?"

"Hardly enough to compensate for the Raine-ing I'd receive if I were caught," Kratos' lips were twitching. "Triple it and maybe I'd consider."

"Genis…" Lloyd sighed.

"I don't have enough, even if we pooled our gald we'd be twenty short."

"Damnit…"

Colette giggled. Genis and Lloyd were just being silly to her. Perhaps out of all of them, only Kratos -and maybe Noishe- knew just how serious Lloyd was about getting away from the "Professor" while she was in ruin-mode.

"_Ne corl, Lloyden, mereth-ea wa congonnan."_

"Huh?" Lloyd stared at Kratos.

"It means…" Genis pawed through his notes. "Umm... don't know the third word… don't know the fourth, but something about "plan" and "don't"…"

Lloyd's eyes lit with understanding and he smiled. "_Magni gar'sel, Kra'sean._"

"You're welcome, Lloyd." Kratos flipped through the small booklet he'd borrowed from Colette on the language. "Hurmph… is this all prayers Chosen One?"

"Of course!"

Kratos sighed. "Of course…"

Genis stared at Kratos then at Lloyd in bafflement,. Both swordsmen grinned and muttered a few words in a language that wasn't angelic. Wondering what just happened, Genis leaned against his "couch". Noishe looked over them all, lolled his tongue, and wagged his tail, _accidentally_ smacking the small elf with the furry appendage.

"Hey, no bad! Ouch quit it! Stop, it stings!"

Lloyd laughed, which was _really_ helpful as it made the tail wag harder.

Genis suffered the tail wagging for a while until Kratos at last composed himself from a fit of suspicious coughs and escorted the dog out of the room and back to his stable.

Only Colette heard the "I'd say 'bad dog' but it would be wholly insincere" that Kratos muttered into one of those large ears on the way out. Well, to be honest, not only Colette heard it. Noishe, who's fluffy tail went back to wagging like mad, did too.

"The dog or the mercenary... I don't know which is worse." Genis rubbed his aching head (where the tail had hit the most) and glared at the two who were departing. "You know, I think Kratos found it funny and he's secretly on Noishe's side!"

"Not a chance." Lloyd rubbed the exsphere on his hand, recalling the door incident a few days back and how Kratos almost kicked it down and wrung his neck. "You know Kratos, nothing's funny to him."

Thinking on what she just heard Colette giggled and the boys stared at her in confusion.

"Something funny, Colette?" Lloyd asked.

"Just a thought."

"Thinking about thoughts, which is new for Lloyd since he doesn't think." Ignoring the loud "hey" from Lloyd, Genis continued. "Can someone sneak a spare Kratos cape for our... you know?"

"I already got one." Lloyd smirked. "My costume, remember?"

"And I got one of Raine's coats," Genis chuckled.

"And I've got the mop head," Colette chimed in. The smiles from all the children were wide and had faint hints of evilness to them.

"So then, what code were we using this time?" Genis rubbed his hands in glee.

Colette rolled over on the mess of blankets she'd laid down t oget comfortable .Certain that Kratos couldn't hear anything, she pulled out a small booklet from the pink blanket and read through the mess of dwarven, angelic, and elf script. "Conflict KR stories, code mania K, and study R."

"So then, who takes who?"

"Kratos!" Lloyd smirked, nabbing the mercenary first before Colette could.

"I'll get Noshy!" Colette chriped.

"And I'll guess I get Raine..." Genis sighed. "All right, tommorow?"

"While we're in town." Lloyd nodded. "Out of town we almost got caught."

"That was kind of funny," Colette chirp.

Remembering the stern conversation about wearing gender appropriate clothes, and the look of silent horror on Kratos' face when he'd stumbled on Lloyd getting out of his Raine costume, was definatly not a funny moment in Lloyd's book. It was actually kinda scary because Kratos had been giving him veiled looks of silent panic for days after.

When he finally came back from "escorting" Noishe, Kratos was greeted with three smiling faces and a sugar sweet "Hi, Kratos!" timed so perfectly it could have been one voice and not three.

Instinct made Kratos' hand snap over the hilt of his blade, as he expected anything -from that demon rabbit from Palma Costa to an army of Desians- to appear out of thin air. When nothing happened, he stared at the children long and hard. They only smiled at him sweetly and the mercenary's frown deepened when Lloyd's lips began to twitch under the scrutiny of the death glare.

"I.. need a drink.. I'll be.. back..."

Lloyd managed to get one closed door between himself and his friends before he broke out into loud howls of mirth.

"I'm never giving him the script again..." Genis growled to Colette.

Colette only gigled in response to something that she knew.

Worried, Kratos' hand seemed to have pernamently wound around the hilt of his blade. The too sweet tones, the far too toothy grins, and Lloyd's "fit" offered him little comfort.


	23. Iselian Entertainment

_By request:_

_The Angelic translations for chapter 22, I modernized the meanings. The language is a little more wordy -and also rather cryptic plus obsessive about maintaining rank- in it's original translated form so I modernized it for easier understanding, anything with a strong secondary meaning, conveys a powerful emotion, or has a rule or story attached to it, is put in parentheses after translation._

Words and titles:

_Asatha'lle: _Good night

_Asatha'luse: _Good night (is a response to someone else' "good night" and literally merges the word for "you" and "night blessings" into one word, this word breaks the rules for directing an idea at someone else and is on par to say... slang)

_Asakanna'lus: _Good morning (in response to someone else's "good morning" merges words "you" -formal- and "day blessings" into one word. This word like _Asatha'luse_ breaks the grammar rule for directing an idea at someone else though it's not as informal as the word above)

_Ceeri, sananah suva derrisee?"-_"_Quenen sanan suva derris.":_ (The first part is pure gibberish as is the second sad to say... I forgot my notes and then when I got home forgot to translate it to mean something so umm let's just say it's a nonsense song and leave it at that. I -think- suva is switch. I know derris -not capitalized or given emphasis when spoken- means priest. Sanan equals... no clue it has no meaning. Quenen is elven -wrong language lol, dumb Kasan, and no I don't have elven or even dwarven fully worked out nor do I imagine I'll bother till I get to Hiemdell(sp)-)

_Derris fa Gothson_: A title: Holy(person) of gardening -angel of gardening- (This is an old pun that started in Double Edged Sword, and has tainted every story in angelic, despite looking grossly different from the term _Derris Fa Guthsuun_ the translated sound is very similar. So much so that the ending is the only differential between the terms "gardening"(pronounced gue-they-son) and guardian (pronounced gue-they-soon) is the exaggerated "o" or "ooh" sound at the end of guardian.

_Kra'sean: _This is another name for Kratos, it's very personalized, and for cultural reasons second names are only used between closest friends or family (reason behind it given in a later chapter)

_Lloyden_: Another name for Lloyd, more personalized then "Lloyd" _(the reason behind it is hinted in "Broken", "Nightmare" and it will be addressed in this fic much later on)_

_Sentences:_

_"Mer phan, mereth-": _"I'm sorry I..." (This is a cut off sentence, taking how it is conjugated -the mereth after mer- it is formal, and it indicates that the apologize-e is going to say more)

_"Ne corl, Lloyden, mereth-ea wa congonnan": "Don't_ worry, Lloyd, I have a plan"

(Grammar time class! Sorry I couldn't resist...

Ne is a weak negative -nu is the stronger negative- combining the terms like saying "ne nu" is like screaming "GOOD GOD NO!" at the top of your lungs and is no way formal, or projects calm.

Corl is two ideas combined. Cor: think upon-again informal-, ill: -negative, makes whatever is around it bad- so "negative thought" or "bad thinking" is the literal translation. There was an asterisk between "cor" and "l" but the program messed it up again...

Mereth-ea: this is the proper way to express an idea guys! Mereth (identifies who's though it is -literal MINE in relation to text KRATOS) - ea (thought) so it roughly means "my thought"

wa: wa's an identifier... (pronounced wia) it's to clarify that the term Kratos speaks isn't the name "merethea" (pronounced mear eh th eh ah) which is a brand of very potent wine in Tethe'alla.

Congonnan: scheme... damn I typoed it should be "congonnaen" indicating that the scheme is Kratos'. The "/ean/" at the end gives the scheme "congonn" credit to the speaker. If it were someone else's scheme -non spacific person- would be "ea" or rather "congonnea".

Have we all been angelic'd out yet? Great, because I'm done for now, onto some lighthearted stuff that will get rid of my budding headache... )

_A/N So after I finish Shards should I do another Tales of game or something else? I think two more Abyss and Eternia, will probably make it to the US, if they do does anyone think I should give one of them a go, or should I try a Windwaker saga... or something(remember I only have a Cube and while I may bet a PS2 that's in the far future)? Oh well, back on topic… I'm being very evil, lots of Genis Lloyd clowning, a window, some spare clothes, and some constructive eavesdropping. Some inner child release and adult bickering within. I'm actually rather pleased I was able to tie the dreaded "chicken soup incident" that Lloyd talks about in some other ficlets into Shards at long last. Sorry Kratos/Raine, Sheena/Lloyd, and Kratos/Sheena fans, this chapter sets it in stone, none of these pairings are happening. Though there is an implied pairing within that will raise some eyebrows..._

_To sum up this chapter in two words "short fluff"._

_Yeah and the title... based off of Renegade entertainment... my creativity must be dying... lol._

Shards of Regeneration

Chapter 23

An Iselain Entertainment

"I'm... sorry Raine but-" Genis smiled wanly into Raine's pained eyes. "-I have to, you understand."

"How could studying Angelic with Colette and Lloyd be more important then going to Ruin tour with me?"

Genis winced, then recalled Lloyd's speech to Colette.

_"Whatever you do, don't fall for the Noishe eyes. Look away, close your eyes, but no matter what don't meet them head on, or it's over."_

Scarily that fit here, it fit really well. It was his sis and he was hurting her by not going. Yeah, Ruin-mode could be bad, but maybe this time it wouldn't be. Maybe he could just tell her and...

_"Don't fall for Noishe eyes!"_

He looked a little off, just at the air above his sister's head, and smiled as the perfect plan came to him.

"Who wants to go with Lloyd anyway? He'll whine and annoy us to death if we took him. I want to go with you after the journey. That way, you and Linar can teach me everything and I'll really be ready for Palma Costa's academy."

"All right." Raine smiled, her pain forgotten. "That's a marvelous idea, and it gives me the opportunity to conduct more research. That way I can fully flesh out my lectures. I'll see you later tonight."

"We'll be back for dinner, Kratos is cooking."

"Be back?" Raine frowned.

"We're going to study outside," Genis called, already off and eager -to his sister at least- to get to learning.

X

Shaking, Kratos was proving to be a problem.

"You don't want to spar?" The mercenary nearly howled at the lump in the middle of the bed that was sheathed in blankets.

"Un uh..."

"Two nights ago you said..."

"'M sleepy..."

"You say that every night."

"Mmm sleepy now, go 'way..."

The bed protested at the leather clad mercenary's weight with a mighty groan. Lloyd winced under his blankets, and though a layer of fabric kept him from being pinned by the Noishe-eyes, he still felt his will giving way... Then something tugged on the blanket. A hand tugged on his blanket, and Lloyd was suddenly glad he had tucked as much of it as he could under himself.

"_Lloyden_, your current behavior, coupled with the facts that you've been under a lot of stress and recently ill, has me concerned."

"I'm fine, I just wanna sleep."

"At least allow me to check for fever..."

"No!" Lloyd squeaked as another tug let in some really cold air in. "I wanna sleep, le' me 'lone!"

"Adding your current speech patterns..."

"You just woke me up!" Lloyd's yell was hardly muted by the fuzzy wool blanket.

"It's been two hours since dawn..."

"That's early, you crazy merc. Let me sleep. I sleep longer than this at home!"

"Well you aren't at home, you are on a journey and..."

Crap, Lloyd had just walked into that one. He let Kratos ramble on about responsibility for a while, since he couldn't do anything else. Suddenly -mid boring speech- inspiration came to him. Lloyd pulled back the blankets around his head and seemed to peek up at the mercenary. He made his eyes a little wider and turned the corners of his lips down ever so slightly.

"_Orisss_, pleeease-" Kratos strangled on his words, lost his lecture and his eyes softened. Remembering Kratos' lessons on how to not hold back, he deepened his frown and tried to make it just a little pained. "-I'm just a little sleepy, I didn't get any sleep last night because I was studying-" Lloyd was studying his script for later today, but Kratos didn't need to know that. "-so could I be lazy just this once?"

Kratos sighed. It was all but over; Lloyd tried not to grin triumphantly now that victory was in sight.

"I suppose just one day. Don't let this get to your head, _Lloyden_."

"_Ne, Oriss... Mer sysompho..._"

"Remember that promise." Kratos tried to sound gruff but was losing his edge. Lloyd had to wonder how far he could nudge Kratos into doing something for him if he put Oriss in the request.

Well, why not try it?

"_Oriss_... I can't quite reach that pillow..."

And lo and behold Kratos brought it to him. Evil ideas flashed behind his dark eyes, and he slithered a little under the blanket to hide his smirk.

"Could you... fluff it?" Lloyd widened his eyes a fraction more, just like Noishe's would. "Please, _Oriss_."

Kratos' eyes glinted dangerously.

"Since you feel so... helpless I believe you might actually be suffering a relapse. I'll leave you to your own devices and bring you some breakfast suitable an invalid."

"What'd that be?" Lloyd yawned; maybe he could catch a Katz nap 'fore he went out...

"Chicken soup."

Lloyd jolted wide awake and paled at the threatening note to Kratos' voice.

"Yes, your condition does seem to be worsening. A whole day in bed might do you some good after all." Kratos stood, his black cape rustled about him as he made his way to the door. At the thresh hold he paused. "_Lloyden_, I expect you to be in this bed when I get back. If you aren't I'll hunt you down and drag you back, is that clear?"

_"A' Oriss-eres..._"

How did things turn around like this so fast?

"Perhaps we could play a few games of _Trava_ to pass the time."

"Sounds great..." Lloyd squeaked, thinking about how shocked he was gunna get when Genis found out that his 'brilliant plan' had trapped him here for hours. But then Kratos wasn't immortal, he had to sleep, or go to the privy, or get bored, or something... right?

X

"What the heck took so long!" Silver locks caught the sunlight and seemed to flash like a multitude of misplaced cutlery.

"I had to jump out a window…" Lloyd growled, pulling a few twigs from his hair.

"A… what?"

"Kratos wouldn't go away, so when he finally did leave for a sec I jumped out the window, landed on a tree, and had to climb down. He -I don't know how he heard me he just did- came outside. I had to run out of town with him behind me yelling junk in Angelic. I lost him at some ruins and then came here…" Lloyd shuddered. "And all I have to say, is if I see another bowl of chicken soup ever again I'm going to scream."

"Do I want to know?" Genis muttered.

"No." Lloyd shuddered. "I don't even want to know. I now hate chicken! It's almost as bad as tomatoes."

Genis snorted. "Lloyd, you're being melodramatic…"

"I am NOT being melo-whatever you called it! Kratos totally freaked out when he thought I was sick and tried to drown me in chicken soup. It's like he's never been sick or something…" Lloyd grumbled.

"Or rather-" hissed voice under its breath. "-he never got treatment when he was ill…"

"Ms. Sage, be still!**"**

"Whiiiine!" A green paw smacked them both, rebuking them for being noisy.

"Shh..." Lloyd snapped a hand over his smaller friends' mouth. "Did you hear that? I could of sworn I heard No-"

From their place crouching in a thick stand of grass Kratos nudged Noishe, and with an apologetic whine the green dog went still.

"Colette handled Noishe," Genis said confidently.

"Noishe is a dog, Genis. Colette falls for puppy eyes so often that she adopted all the dogs in Iselia and named them. She even re-named Noishe into Mr. Bunny-ears and he doesn't mind."

Noishe wagged his tail, or rather did until Raine gave him a vile glare. With a soundless whimper, the dog curled his tail into a ball at his side, and then shifted around to sit on it for good measure.

"What if Kratos gets Raine?" Lloyd wondered. "He might be worried and get Raine and then they could get Noishe and then Noishe could smell us out…"

"And then Angels might come down from the tower and actually make you smart…" Genis snickered. "Really, Lloyd, think for once, Kratos and Sis hate each other. Logically, that hate would make them not check with each other to see if the stories are true. Logically, even if they did get together they'd fight and bicker and look for us on their own. Further more, Raine doesn't like Noishe. She wouldn't use him to find us, and Raine doesn't like Kratos but knows you like Noishe so she'd probably keep them away from each other. So that brings the odds of Kratos finding us with Noishe down to nothing."

"But if they got really worried…"

Genis sighed. "If they got really worried, we'd see them coming anyways and we could run. After all, it's a plain for Martel's sake, a flat length of ground. How could we not see them coming?"

"I guess… that works…." Lloyd frowned. "But if we can see them then they could see us, ri-?"

"Lloyd, don't worry, I positively swear that they'll never know. After all it's logic, and logic never fails."

"Last time you said that we had the boats fall apart in the middle of that lake."

"Again -at eight- how was I supposed to know that glue when submerged would dissolve?"

"You're twelve now right… so then that would make you four years smarter…"

"Exactly." Genis grinned. "So I'm more likely to be right now than I was back then."

"But if you're twelve and I'm sixteen, then doesn't that make me four years smarter then y-"

"Lloyd, come on, you don't want to keep Colette waiting do you?"

"But…"

Genis sighed, "Lloyd, trust me alright."

"B- Alright… fine, fine… let's go already." Picking up a bulky sack from the ground Lloyd swung it over his shoulder. "If we get caught, we are so dead."

"It goes against logic that we'd get caught," Genis said confidently.

Lloyd frowned, looked back at the thick grass and had to wonder if he'd really heard the whine or seen the tail after all…

Well, he knew of one way he could check.

"Hey, Noishy… jerky!" Lloyd pulled out a small pouch from the sack and the two eavesdropping adults grabbed an ear a piece to keep the dog from getting up and charging out of hiding and pounce on the young swordsman. "Bunny jerky with red saltey on top…. Your favorite!"

Nothing happened, except that Kratos had freed up a hand and had slipped it around the dog's throat. At that threat the creature went dead still… thought its bright brown eyes watered in longing.

Taking a bite, Lloyd showed every sign of enjoying the snack, which was his favorite too. At that sight Noishe began to whimper quietly.

"Mmm mmm, this is good, guess you don't want some, Noishy! Your loss!"

"Whiiiin- erk…"

Noishe gasped and nearly collapsed after Kratos had punched him in the throat.

"Heh…" Confident Noishe really wasn't there, Lloyd grinned. "Oh well, his loss." Lloyd took a large bite and Noishe began to cry. "I'll have the jerky all to myself then. Well I'll save him a piece…"

Lloyd slipped a small sliver into his pocket.

The tears stopped and Noishe growled softly. Watching his measly snack go in the pocket, his eyes locked on to the over-flowing pouch. Raine and Kratos were shaken off as the dog rose and slinked after Lloyd, deadly menace written on every line of that lupine face. It was all Raine and Kratos could do to keep up.

X

"Sooo... K/R or N/K or R/N or G/L or L/K or K or R first?"

Genis frowned, picking up the mop head that had red slips of fabric running through it. In Palma Costa, Lloyd had bought some less button-heavy clothes. He had also had clothes made like his old set despite Kratos' protests. Fights with some monster outside of Palma Costa while training with Kratos had reduced one of the"normal" shirts to little more than ribbons. Shreds of the shirt, real ribbons from Triet, and a bit of red ribbon that Lloyd had bought and not liked for his turtle neck in Asgard, were mixed in with the innocent looking mop head. Lloyd picked it up, plopping it on his head while Genis laughed.

"Give me that!" Genis snatched at the "hat" and Lloyd easily stepped out of range of his short friend's reaching hands. "I'm Kratos, not you!"

"Well... now I'm Kratos!"

"Nah, you're Kratos' kid!" Genis teased.

He was startled when some strange emotion crossed Lloyd's face fora second. It was gone and Lloyd grimaced.

"Yuuuck, Genis we are not going over this again... Mom and Kratos ideas and talk gives me nightmares..."

Genis laughed. "Alright, fine, hey maybe you're his little brother in disguise!"

"Ung... no!" Lloyd drew back in horror. "I'm not looking all evil and glary when I get older like him!"

"You mean he doesn't give you glare lessons?" Genis smirked.

"No, it's all sword stuff... and philosophy sometimes... but he hasn't given me glare lessons..." Lloyd bent down and rummaged through the sack he'd brought, pulling out a rumpled, and slightly unclean, spare of Raine's coat. He frowned and threw it to the side. "Damn it, where'd I put that cape..." The young swordsman was blissfully unaware of how his sorcerer friend was sneaking closer and closer.

"Philosophy..." Genis laughed. "Yeah right!"

Lloyd smiled, didn't even look up from his rummaging. "Yeah, philosophy, sometimes relig-er rolgor stuff too."

"Un huh... sure, Lloyd." Genis' hands -or rather left hand- crackled with a hint of electric mana at the sound Lloyd looked up. Genis snatched the hat off with one hand, while putting his other electic-hand on Lloyd's head.

"Ow, what was that for!" Lloyd hopped back, running a hand through his hair. There was a loud hiss and the hair stood on end, spitting sparks. Lloyd absently slipped his hand to the hilt of his sword and there was an even louder hiss and even more sparks flying. "Ow... Genis!"

"I'm Kratos," Genis said firmly as he plopped the "hat" on his head.

"You're dead!" Lloyd snarled, he went for his swords and got shocked again. "Ow, this isn't funny!"

"Oh, stop whining... fine, fine I'll undo it." Genis rummaged through the bag and found their "cooking skit" prop: an oversized bowl that Lloyd had once talked Kratos into using as a helmet one day. Still grinning, Genis waved a hand over it. The air around him shimmered as he drew water from the air and everything around him and when the blurriness shrouding him faded, Genis grinned up at his human friend.

"Alright, I've got the thing to cure the shocks... do you want it?"

"Un uh, I fell for this when we were little, prepare to be Noishe Po-"

Genis whipped around and threw the contents at Lloyd's face, there was a spectacular boom as the conflicting mana hit one another and Lloyd was on his back on the ground staring up with glazed eyes.

"Owww..." Lloyd whimpered. "Pain..."

"Opps... I uh think I over did it..." Lloyd's eyelids fluttered, then his eyes closed and the swordsman slumped forward. With a soft 'thump' Lloyd fell on his side and went very still. Genis crept closer to his friend, his fear making him more pale then normal. "Come on, Lloyd, wake up! This isn't funny!"

Lloyd lay very still, he was breathing, but it was a very shallow type of breathing. Genis brought his hands up to his face and nibbled on his nails.

He missed how Lloyd's lips curled. and missing the only warning, he stepped back in shock when Lloyd leapt to his feet. It was over in a second. Genis found his arms pinned.

"No... no not that... anything but-!"

The knuckle descended, ran across the top of his head and he was trapped, it was all but over.

"No.. help!" Genis cried, as Lloyd slung him under one arm and continued his attack. Genis kicked and thrashed weakly in Lloyd's grasp. He squeaked out in terror as the hand ran through his wild silver locks.

It was all over.

X

Colette hummed a ditty about angels and birds then cocked her head to the side. A small frown turned down her lips and she looked away from the stage -which was little more then a flat span of rock that ran a few feet in every direction- and to a particular stand of thick grass and vegitation. Shrugging off the sound as un-important she went back to humming and waiting to see what her friends had thought up of this time. She always loved their little plays because they were so funny...

X

Adorned with cape and red mop, Genis tromped out from behind a row of bushes. A large wooden stick had been crudely shaped to resemble a sword, and a slab of back had been taken from a tree and tied to his arms with black ribbon. Genis, or perhaps it would have been better to say "_Kratos_", clambered up to the stage with two long lengths of fabric in hand.

"I have finally finished training, Lloyd." _Kratos_ announced. "Come on, Lloyd... let's go!"

"Whine!"

"Now, Lloyd!" _Kratos_ tugged on the ribbons.

"Bark!" Still dressed as he normally was, hair sticking up just a little more then normal, Lloyd bounded up to the stage doing his best Noishe walk. Colette giggled, clapped her hands at the sight, blissfully unaware at how the bushes behind her - which hid an amused woman and frowning man - snickered.

"See, he even talks intelligent. I'm sure Ms. Sage would find that to her satisfaction." Genis tried to deepen his voice to mime Kratos' quiet baritone. The failed effort more than the words themselves made Colette giggle again. "Come on, Lloyd, fetch!"

Drawing a stick out from his belts -a mess of wound up ropes that spanned the most of hid mid-section- Genis waved it over his head and threw. With a very Noishe-like bark, Lloyd went after it.

Lolling his tongue, Noishe slipped behind his conspiring companions. He put a paw apiece on his fellow human and elf eavesdroppers, and thinking about how nicely comfortable his somewhat humany, elfy mattress, he set his tail to thumping on Kratos' leg.

"Noishe, get off..." Raine hissed.

Ignoring her, Noishe lifted his head up, both ears pricked forward to hear every word.

"Noishe, if you aren't off in five seconds, I'll free up my dagger and change your gender..."

With a gulp, Noishe slipped off of his comfortable spot and settled for the nice, hard, non-threatening, ground to sit upon.

"Smart dog," Kratos murmured, then fell silent as Lloyd (now dressed in Raine's coat) came from a different spot on the stage, ready to pounce on the nearest pebble and go into Ruin Mode.

_She_ went to pebble to pebble and _Kratos_ fell asleep with a loud snore.

_Raine _whirled on the short mercenary, drawing out a staff from a length of rope around her waist, while the wind picked up. On ghostly white fabric, written in night black ink, were the words "Ye olde Artifact Staff of Paine".

It was like reliving Triet all over again. Kratos winced at the near brutal physical humor the children were relying on to convey an even more brutal message.

Besides him Raine sputtered in complete outrage and Noishe wagged his tail in glee.

X

After Lloyd chased Genis off stage, they tossed aside the props, Genis muttered bits of the plan under his breath while they looked for accompanying costumes.

A green mop-wig was plopped on Genis' head by Lloyd while he snatched the Kratos cape from Genis' hands and swung it around his shoulders.

"Hair in face... hair in face..." Lloyd muttered as he dipped his hands into the water bowl and slicked back his hair so that most of it fell into his eyes.

"Why do I have to be Noishe?" Genis whined.

"Because of the hair; your hair doesn't slick forward-" Lloyd ruffled his hair and tried to mess it up, less then a second later he was looking more like Kratos' than Genis had. "-mine does."

"Oh."

Set they boh clambered back on the stage ready for the next skit.

X

"Whine?" Noishe looked to Kratos, and then back to the pair of children charading as them.

"No, don't ever ask again."

The _Noishe_ and _Kratos_ on the stage were now playing fetch since "no one was watching". When "someone" came, _Kratos_ hid the throw disk, once even making it a hat, all to "save his image".

"I'm not... that vain... am I?"

"Yes, you are," Raine grumbled, still angry over the ruin-skit.

"Bark." Noishe bobbed his head in agreement.

X

Dressed in a blanket shaped crudely into a robe, Lloyd scrambled up the steps. Genis, meanwhile, came dressed as Colette and at each "oops" Genis let out, _"The Assassin" _screamed in terror, eventually scrambling up a tree just to be safe.

X

From another place a few yards away, there was a click of cards coming together and a snicker from the being hid by the grass at her feet.

"How astute..." piped the small fox creature at her feet whose tail was a fantasy of blues and greens.

"Corrine... it's not funny..."

"I find it rather amusing; you need to learn to laugh at yourself Sheena."

"What I need to do is finish my job..."

"If you must," Corrine sighed. "Could you wait 'till they are done; I want to see if they did me."

"Fine..." Sheena growled, watching as her target gleefully clapped her hands together as both boys darted off the stone yet again.

X

A monster crawled on the stage.It was hardly formidable: just Genis crawling around under a blanket, and Kratos had seen more dangerous mice than the elf child, so he relaxed and tried to ignore how Raine was muttering about a "Raine Storm". Kratos squinted, trying to catch glimpse of the strange things he could see under the fabric with Genis. Eventually he shrugged it off and sat back to watch the newest skit. _Noishe_ ran screaming from the monster, _Colette_ petted it, _Raine_ pulled a huge book out and began making notes, and the _monster_ casually beat Lloyd up with a lightning spell.

From the amount of cursing and the muttered "sorry!", the spell was supposed to have missed, but there was an adagethat went "the mustplay go on". The boys followed that saying -for better or worse- andthe show went on.

After a prolonged absence _Kratos_ clambered up the stage, his sword dawn. _Kratos_ waved the weapon around threatening, then promptly tripped, yelling about a stupid rock.

After five or six more trips _Kratos_ -grumbling about his hair in his face- finally lifted his bangs and glared at the monster.

With a squeak Genis rolled over, and the small things he had glimpsed under the fabric were now visible for all to see. Rudely made knives ran all along the bottom of the _monster's_ hide. Some of the "blades" were made of sticks, whilesome were made of paper cut into the proper shape...

Raine began to chuckle, and Noishe's tail wagged madly.

Kratos growled and decided that Lloyd was going to have several rough sparring sessions ahead.

X

From another place of concealment, Corrine hopped up onto Sheena's shoulders to take a long good look at what was making his Summoner laugh. The black clad boy stared at the _monster_, which promptly died. The glare settled on a span of inoffensive grass, which promptly "fainted", then a rock skittered out of the way of that dangerous glare –both grass and rock were moved by a wind spell cast by the "dead" _monster_- watching this play Corrine had to admit he was at a loss to see what was so funny.

X

Next came a large box. Lloyd dragged it onto the platform and then turned his back on the wooden chest and took a sip from his water skin. Genis –taking the role of himself for once- put a finger to his lips and slipped inside the chest. When the box growled, Lloyd hopped to his feet with a scream. The swordsman fumbled with his belts and pulled out his rapier taking a weary step back

"Rowr!" The box with a gust of wind mana hopped forward.

When it landed there was a tell-tale "oww" and Lloyd put the sword back on his belt.

"That wasn't funny!"

"Was too!" snapped the elf who was comfortablysecreted away in the chest.

"Was not!" Lloyd was chuckling despite himself.

"Colette's laughing!" Genis pointed out triumphantly, pulling open the lid of the box and letting his head pop out.

Looking over his shoulder, Lloyd had to admit Colette was laughing and having a lot of fun. Grinning, Lloyd sheathed his sword and then looked back at the path they had traveled. There was a hint of green -- a flash of movement… Lloyd froze, only for a second, then he smiled and shrugged.

Oh well, he wasn't too surprised that Noishy had followed him. Noishy always found their little games, and the finale couldn't be complete without a pouncing; it'd break tradition.

X

"Did he… see us?" Raine whispered.

"I don't think so." Kratos murmured, his dark eyes distant and troubled. "But if a certain someone's tail could stop wagging we might be able to see the rest of this… activity without being caught."

Noishe paid Kratos' words no mind and just continued to enjoy the show.

X

There was a musical _ring-a-ling_, and that was all the warning they got. Lloyd, with a bell tied around his neck and two lengths of brown fabric tied into his hair to serve as ears, hopped onto the stage. Genis, wrapped up in a blanket, staggered after him.

_The Assassin_ and _Assassin's pet_ were lost. After Ossa Trail they and spent weeks trying to find Palma Costa. They started out completely lost and only proceeded to get even more lost as time went by. They talked of their targets (since they were not known by name so they were named by a characteristic). "The Glarer" (Kratos), "Two-sword Boy" (Lloyd), "Crazy, Silver-haired Woman" (Raine), "The Short One" (Genis), and "The Blonde One" (Colette), were gossiped about, conspired against, and mocked. It was insulting to everyone, to say the very least. "Blonde" and "Crazy Woman" were given a gentler treatment than the rest of the group, but "Glarer", "Short One", and "Swords" were given no mercy. It was amusing to see that, unlike Sheena, these children were more then capable than taking jokes about themselves.

Corrine sniffed as he and Sheena were made out to be little more then fools who lived in terror of the word "oops" and rabbit holes.

"A complete misrepresentation if you ask me!" Corrine huffed.

Sheena's only response was to shuffle her deck of cards together and glare at the red clad boy.

"Oh dear… Sheena… try not to take this too personally… they're just children after all and they don't understa-"

Sheena surged to her feet and began to close the distance between herself and the stage.

Corrine sighed and padded after his Summoner, he really had wanted to see the end of this but it didn't look like he was going to get his chance.

X

It was time for the finale! Rubbing his face, Lloyd pulled off his "mercenary cape". The last skit with Kratos(at least trying to) train and teach himhad been physically tough. Mainly because Genis was supposed to act hyper and run around and act really dumb. So, as "Kratos", he had to tackle and then sit on "Lloyd" to get him to learn. It wasn't too unlike the aftermath of the Palma Costa test, actually.

Lloyd had to feel a little badfor Kratos; he wasn't all that bad, but he was close.

"I wouldn't want to have to teach me." Lloyd grinned, then tied the rope with a wild mess of fabric around his neck Part of it was black, another segment blue, one green,one white, and one purple. Each color was for each person he had to act out as because with this skit, and it was going to be a big one.

"Help!" Genis was drowning in Raine's coat and was becoming tangled up.

Pulling the coat off of Genis, Lloyd turned it rightside up and then handed it back to the elf.

"You know, you could just wear the orange collar."

"I'm wearing the coat!" Genis grumbled. "You can look like Noishe and wear a collar. I'll wear the coat."

"Here, don't forget the staff, spoon, and bowl."

Genis chuckled, took the items and grinned.

"You know, if my logic was wrong we'd be so dead."

Lloyd's lips twitched and he decided not to tell Genis that they were dead, very dead. He knew just how dead because the other time he had glanced in the direction to the wagging tail he'd glimpsed a bit of orange.

"Yeah, your logic's never wrong."

"Yep, you can't ever go wrong with logic." Genis grinned, happy that Lloyd was seeing the light of reason at long last.

"Un huh, come on, let's go already!"

They were _soo_ dead… but hey, they had had fun first, so it wasn't all that bad!

X

Raine poisoned everyone. It was a long painful death for all involved. _Colette_ and _Lloyd_ tried the food to be nice, they died writhing in agony. _Kratos_ tried to run, but before longhe was Raine'd then force fed the "improved" recipe.His passing was a long, painful looking affair.

The real Kratos chuckled. Now this skit he _liked_.

Raine was trembling in outrage.

Noishe was laughing so hard he was wheezing.

As for the _Noish_e on stage, the smell of the third recipe did him in. Then "_The Assassin_" came to kill Colette. _Raine_ whacked "T_he Assassin_" with the cooking spoon covered with spagetti. Somehow, spagetti had now become a very potent contact poison.

With Raine's cooking though, no one was surprised or doubted it.

The real Kratos was now quietly laughing as the counterfeit Raine turned on her brother, and was advancing, spoon in hand.

Noishe had stopped breathing, he was laughing so hard he was choking himself.

With a very drawn out scream of "Noooo!" _Genis_ was feed. He died after much thrashing.

Both actors bowed to their happy audience of one, then sat down on the stone to catch a second wind.

"Lloyd Irving and Genis Sage!" Raine screamed, hopping to her feet and storming out of hiding.

"Uh oh…" Colette gulped.

"Hi… Sis…" Genis squeaked.

"Hey, Raine." Lloyd grinned at his descending teacher. "Did ya like it?"

"It wasn't bad…" Kratos rumbled as he slipped out of hiding.

"Oh crap…" Lloyd paled, hearing the quiet menace in the man's tone. "We're really dead now…"

"Plan S 5?" Genis whispered.

"Yeah…" Lloyd grinned. "Let's see if it works on Kratos…"

"Halt, for the people of teth' ack!" The purple clad Assassin tripped on the small fox like creature that had skidded to a stop between her legs. Lloyd looked down at the sprawled assassin and the small creature met his gaze and spared him a toothy grin.

"I must say," the creature said in an airy little voice that matched its form perfectly, "I do love live theater."

"Bark!"

"No, Noshy, not n-"

There was a blur of green and Lloyd was swept of the stage and landed only a few feet away from the Assassin.

"Woof!"

"Not… now…"

"Bark!"

"Can't breath…"

"Corrine, what's wrong with you!" The Assassin got to her feet, using the stage to pull herself up.

"I don't quite know actually, just a spur of the moment thing."

Noishe wagged his tail and then winked at the fox that had a blue and green wave instead of a tail.

Much to Sheena's shock, Corrine winked back.

"Now that dog, I like!"

"Whiine bark woof!"

"Not… funny…" Lloyd croaked.

"Whine bark!"

Kratos drew his blade and grimly advanced on the Assassin, Raine was only a step behind him.

"I believe now would most certainly not be the time to have it out, don't you?" Corrine suggested brightly.

"I can still fight." Sheena lifted her hands, dull-hued cards resting in them. "I just tripped, that's all…"

"Noshy… get off!"

"Whiiine!"

"Yes…a wise suggestion. As the voice of neutrality in this party I would like to speak to the leader of the Chosen's group." The small fox said, swishing his tail and pointedly ignoring Sheena's scream of "what!".

"Speaking," Kratos growled, stepping forward. His sword rested in his hands.

"I'd like to strike up a temporary truce. We won't be swayed from what we are doing, and you won't be swayed in your task, but a three day's truce should be sufficient time for you to get going and for us to purchase supplies then resume pursuing you. Neither side will fight the other during this time, even if an opportunity presents itself. Is this agreeable?"

"You are in a compromised position," Kratos growled.

"No, you are." Corrine nodded to Lloyd. "Or rather he is. I will attack the dog and all it takes is one edge of these cards to go over the throat. It's diamond sharp, the edge of that card."

Kratos' black eyes burned with hate. Those dreadful eyes locked on Noishe. Under that gaze, the dog promptly laid down with a whine. It was as if the dog was moving as to protect Lloyd from the glare. Snarling, the mercenary sheathed his blade with ill grace.

"Agreed."

"I thought you'd see it my way. Well then, Sheena, shall we be off?"

Noishe got to his paws and abandoned his owner, turned mattress, and with a farewell bark he made himself scarce.

Swordsman and Assassin glared at each other. Lloyd took a weary step back and the purple clad assassin's hands clenched into fists.

"Sheena," Corrine chirped. "The honor of Mizuho depends on keeping your oath now."

"Three days-" The girl hissed "-and you're toast."

"Three days-" Kratos promised "-and you are dead."

"I guess my hopes of peaceful compromise are out of the question?" Corrine sighed.

Shivering Sheena looked away from the mercenary, turned from them all and began to walk towards Asgard.

"W... wait..."

At Colette's words the Assassin stopped. A stray breeze picked up the flowing pink ribbons that wrapped around the woman's waist and drifted down past her knees, they flared out, almost like a pair of pink wings.

"Why are you trying to stop the Regeneration?"

"I'm trying to kill you, girl," the Assassin spat.

"Why are you trying to... kill me? If I succeed then everyone will be saved."

"No... not everyone, not everyone will be saved. Corrine!"

The fox-like creature was being stared at by Lloyd. The little creature had sat down and was giving the swordsman a lecture on how to properly represent Sheena and himself.

"No fraternizing with the enemy!"

"But..."

"Let's go, Corrine!"

"No appreciation for live theater..." The creature sighed.

"And stop acting like that perverted jackass!"

"I'm coming." Corrine shook his head and the bell around his neck jingled. "I'm sorry... she normally isn't like this."

With a puff of smoke the small creature disappeared, Lloyd still had not lifted his gaze from where it had been, even after five minutes had passed.

"_Lloyden, ust phal_?" Kratos murmured, reaching out to shake the young man by the shoulder.

"I... it..." Lloyd made a squeaky noise. "I.. It... Talked! Fox monstersdon't talk! And they don't "poof" and go away! It's not right!"

"Now is not the time to be in shock nor pursue this fascinating phenomenon." Rain said cooly, leashing in her ruin mode with obvious effort. "Back to the inn, everyone, now!"

"Yes, Professor." Colette sighed.

X

"You're leaving Asgard!" Linar howled in obvious distress. He'd been milling around the inn since the purple clad man had stolen his research partner. Blindly, he barged into the nearest room and continued his rant. "But we haven't completely analyzed the runes on the monolith and compared their style to the works in the caverns to properly deduce if your theory of someone deliberately mutilating the..."

Linar took a deep breath and looked ready to continue, he lost his ability to speak as the mercenary looked up from rummaging through some packs to glare at him.

"Oh... wrong room... sorry..."

"I didn't understand a word of that..." Lloyd muttered. Double knotting the last strings together so that when Kratos inspected his packing job, -by turning it upside down- his clothes wouldn't tumble out on the floor again.

Kratos chuckled, pulled out his whet stone and pocketed it.

"He talked so fast, _Lloyden_, I couldn't even follow it."

"Why's he wandering around the inn, going into rooms with his eyes closed, trying to talk to the Professor?"

Kratos smirked, picking uphis re-packed gear and swinging it over his shoulders.

"Let us say that I have to wonder at the depth of Linar's infatuation with Raine... If Raine actually responds to Linar's attentions -which I highly doubt- she might debase me of my personal theory."

"What theory is that?" Lloyd frowned, not quite understanding the first part but somewhat able to figure out the second.

"That your mentor does not actually posess ice water for blood."

"I still don't follow."

"You'll understand when you're older." Kratos sighed. "Hopefully..."


	24. leashing the wind RD

Emergancy note to my Beta: I wasn't able to get this to you through the normal means, and as you know my e-mail is 100 unreliable, I'm submitting it now but if you have the time and want to go over it go ahead and I'll re-submit it with correction and all ASAP.

Leashing the wind

Chapter 24

Shards of Regeneration

_Some humor, the adults learn from the skits and find a way to keep Lloyd in line he he... Oh and Raine pushes Colette and Kratos too far... the world must be ending. Kratos Lloyd bonding, some more of their religion, some angelic banter, and Martel faith and Angelic language is brushed up on. I'm a little surprised... but Raine got a hard lesson from Colette in this chapter... She also learned quite a bit about Kratos. I think they are done fighting, (Lloyd gives his first corny speech sniffles)... after all neither are stupid enough to push it farther since both now know how far they can trust the other. Kratos' goals probably chill Raine (and will chill the readers) a bit but I think the bickering is going to quiet down now. Oh and the song... it's mine, I wrote it a while ago._

Lloyd shivered, and not because he was cold –though he still was, cold that is- and scooted just a tiny bit away from the seething mercenary.

"So it's just been a bad day overall." Lloyd muttered, nicely summing up everything that had happened to them. He scrunched into himself in an attempt to warm up, but Kratos' bucket of cold water was still making him cold.

"You might say that."

There was no more talk after that statement. Kratos drummed his fingers against the hilt his long sword while Lloyd shivered and stared into the darkness almost wishing the assassin would try to break into the common that Kratos would have something to vent on. Of course the one time he wanted her to come she didn't. So Kratos just silently glared at the darkness, thinking his dark thoughts, and death glaring everything in sight. Lloyd split his wits; one half of him wondered what he could do to make Kratos act normal again, the other part kept gripping that he was cold.

Still, he'd all but asked for it. Falling asleep like that in the middle of watch though…

An idea came to him, and he smiled then tried to smooth down the smile so that his expression wouldn't give him away.

" Plum."

Kratos turned, stared at the red clad swordsman in confusion. It was in bafflement that the mercenary lost his homicidal rage.

"Plum?"

"It's plum."

"What "is plum"?"

Your tunic, it's kinda a plum color."

Snarling, Kratos punched Lloyd on the shoulder, and the Iselian laughed.

"And your cape, it's kinda a lavenderish color."

Lloyd winced as Kratos mock punched him again.

"Well I guess it could be worse." The mercenary murmured, his black eyes flicked over the younger swordsman's garb. "Cranberry is by far a thousand times worse than plum."

"Take that back!" Lloyd snarled, hopping to his feet. "It's not cranberry!"

Kratos nodded sagely. "Yes, perhaps cranberry is too extreme-"

"Humph, course it is, it's just red and-"

"-it definitely possesses a rose hue."

Lloyd's jaw sagged open in total shock.

"What!"

There was the sound of a door opening, the stomp of steps coming down stairs and the tap of a staff striking the wooden floor. While the common room was nice, and somewhat warmer then outside, Raine was coming. Lloyd decided being outside where it was colder and windy was better then sticking around and getting "Raine-d".

Kratos must have agreed, because the man hopped to his feet and the friendly chatter suddenly became a race to see who could get to the door leading out first.

X

"'Morning Lloyd! 'Morning Kratos!" Colette chirped as the purple clad mercenary and red clad swordsman walked into the inn around dawn. "Why do you two have leaves in your hair?"

"No reason." Lloyd muttered, running a hand through his hair and pulling out the largest of the green leaves. "I call dibs on the baths."

"There was a small… mishap last night." Kratos grunted, and then glared at the smiling Genis. "Ask Ms. Sage about it if you wish to know about it. Now -if you'll excuse me, Chosen- Lloyd is not the only one with pressing need to use the men's bathing facilities."

Colette blinked and Genis snickered, at that familiar sound Colette turned to her elf friend.

"Raine chased them and they climbed up a tree to avoid being "Rained". Hey, Lloyd!" The small elf grinned broadly as he chased after the Iselian swordsman. "How'd you rest last night?"

"Shut it!"

"Did the birds attack you?"

"No!"

"Does Kratos snore, is that why you're grouchy?"

"I'm not answering that!"

"I-" Kratos rumbled. "-do not snore."

"So why are you so sleepy Lloyd?" Genis' tone was stuffed with muffled laughter.

"Because your psycho sister went all ruin bonkers and we were stuck outside …"

"RUIN _Bonkers_!" Raine screamed, hopping to her feet, abandoning a breakfast of fruit and cream that Colette had ordered for everyone since she'd been up first. "Lloyd Irving, you get back here!"

Colette, and the few people staying in the Fresco watched the elf professor storm up the stairs. There was a scream of terror on Genis' part, a yelled "I didn't do anything Raine!" and then a loud "outta my way!".

Lloyd ran down the stairs, Raine –staff in hand- chasing after the Iselian swordsman around the common room.

A few moments later Kratos strolled down the stairs, a tunic and pair of pants were draped over his arm along with two towels. His eyebrow rose as he watched the chase.

"This, is becoming… commonplace to me. It is no longer disturbing, just habit, or perhaps routine. Is that a bad thing?"

"It's called "being an Iselian",-" Genis sighed, coming down the steps to join the mercenary. "-it's always crazy back in Iselia."

Colette frowned, not quite understanding the depth of Raine's ruin-insanity or how Lloyd careless comment could trigger such a spectacular show of violence. She thought about it for a moment, anger and fanaticism were alien to her so she was quietly tackling something that was beyond her normal scope.

Perhaps that's why she came to the wrong answer.

"Do you think the Professor's sad that we're leaving Asgard?"

At her comment Kratos' expression became strained and Genis groaned.

"You know Lloyd could explain this much better then I could…" Genis smoothly evaded responsibility for explaining -or trying to explain yet again- why Ruin mode was bad. "I think you should talk to him Colette, it's one of those tricky things, you know?"

Colette nodded, smiled, and then the frown came back.

"If he gets caught I don't think that he's going to be able to explain it." Colette fretted.

Genis weighted leaving Kratos alone with Colette, weighted it against trying to explain something that he'd tried to explain at least ten times before. While he liked Colette he didn't have much patience when she didn't understand him –kinda like Lloyd and almost everyone in Iselia actually- and he didn't want to be mean to her. After all they were going to be going to the next seal, and that was always really hard on Colette. He decided he shouldn't add to it and he'd just have to deal with Kratos being with Colette for a little. Anyways it wasn't like the man would hurt Colette; he was hired to protect her for Martel's sake!

"Well… I just need to pack, but I'm sure Kratos can explain." Genis then dashed up the stairs to get away from Kratos, who might very well "Raine" him for this. The mercenary's famous "death glare" locked on the wizard and Genis got to his rooms and closed the door behind him. It was only then that he felt a little safer.

X

"Oww… stop walking so fast…"

"Whine whine whine!"

"I do not whine you double crossing mutt." Lloyd cuffed Noishe on the back of his head, the hit hardly was felt –fluff on the back of one's head was very useful for muffling teasing smacks- so he ignored it. "You ratted on me!"

Noishe lolled out his tongue, he, after watching the chase for a while had jerked his head to the empty stable by his own. Lloyd had lost Raine for a little and decided to take up that offer of hiding. As if it was his tail's fault for wagging when the woman had snapped "You've seen him, haven't you?".

As Lloyd continued to whine and moan about his sore butt Noishe's ears slicked back. Finally he decided enough was enough.

"Whine bark." The green dog went into a quick trot; Lloyd tightened his grip on the dog's mane and held on for dear life while they easily bypassed the elves, Chosen, and mercenary. A few yards up the road Noishe sat, while the items were nicely tied down Lloyd was not. The pots, pans, packs, and books thumped and jingled against each other, Lloyd just fell off.

"Bark!" Turning on his paw Noishe padded back to the others.

"Stupid dog…" Lloyd huffed, wearily clambering to his feet. "When we get to the next stream I swear you'll be sorry!"

Noishe only bared his teeth in what only could have been called a smile.

X

"My rear still hurts…" Lloyd growled, throwing down his packs on the grassy earth while Kratos polished his blade.

"I'm sure the world is interested in hearing about the state of your butt Lloyd." Genis rolled his eyes, looking up from his notes in Angelic.

"Whatcha doing?" Lloyd sprawled on the soft grass and sighed in relief, walking for whole days was really hard sometimes.

Kratos actually looked up from his work at the sound of Lloyd's pain. A glimmer of concern flashed across the mercenary's eyes, and Lloyd dredged up a grin.

"It's not that bad, just stings, you've been Rained before so you know how it is."

Kratos nodded, it was the closest any had gotten him to talk since they set up camp for the evening. Since they knew the assassin was going to come after them and knew where they where going Kratos and Raine had talked and argued for hours upon returning to the inn. Kratos had wanted to disregard his vow and just finish the woman off. Raine had been against it. While practical it was dishonorable, and the idea of killing someone in cold blood went to far even for Raine. Colette had protested, Genis had protested, and when Lloyd finally took Raine's side Kratos had grudgingly stepped down.

In the end it was too late for them to head out when the bickering had finally ran it's course, they all agreed to stay one last night in Asgard then head out as fast as they could. Kratos had abandoned them in the inn the morning of the chase, saying he was going to go shopping. When Kratos came back with a lot less supplies than any of the others would have brought, that had caused some problems. But he still had most of their Gald, and the necessities were covered.

"Mr. Aurion, you are not going to ask children to go on short rations!"

"I'll do what I deem as necessary for this Regeneration Ms Sage. If you'd like, you can stay here, that way there are less mouths to feed and the ration will be a little more plentiful."

Kratos and Raine had spent most of the day pointedly ignoring each other. It was all they did now, fight, and it was making Lloyd, Colette, and Genis, sick. Kratos had already tried to separate Lloyd from his friends again and that had lead to yet another fight. This time it was Kratos against Lloyd. Lloyd had held out for an hour before the sick feeling in his gut made him apologize, but even as he apologized he didn't back down.

And neither had Kratos, if you thought about the stiff "I understand", it didn't really even mean "I'm sorry" or "I won't do it again". Lloyd sighed and pulled his pack over to him, it made a decent pillow, but he was kinda missing Asgard and all its inns.

Raine's mournful sigh told him that the Professor was missing all of Asgard's ruins, and Lloyd decided that he didn't miss the inns all that much anymore.

Colette came back from setting up her tent, she muttered something to Kratos in Angelic and the mercenary told her to talk to him later in common. Man, Kratos was really being a jerk today, but maybe he was sick and tired of the bickering like everyone else was.

Lloyd knew for a fact that the man was only tolerating Genis' company because the elf was stuttering through a song in Angelic that Lloyd had caught Kratos humming from time to time.

"_Guer, guer, bue' gu_"

"_Guen, guen, guen, bue' gu_." Kratos murmured. "And it's pronounced _"g-oh-ian_" not "_gwa-en_". Guen is short and modernized version of the archaic name, Gwynevear."

"Oh…" Genis frowned. "Angelic's a bit tricky isn't it?"

"Yes, it is." Kratos didn't even look up from polishing his sword.

"Hey, how do I know you aren't making it up just to make me learn it wrong!" Genis huffed.

Lloyd rolled his eyes and Kratos made a quiet rumbling sound in his chest that told them all his patience was almost gone.

"I mean you might just be making all this up, how do we know anything you say is true. You could just be li-" Genis continued as if he hadn't even heard the noise.

So maybe the sound just told Lloyd that Kratos was angry.

"Mr. Sage, the world does not end five feet away from the fire pit. It might, however, end very abruptly for you if you stay in my company."

Genis decided to leave and go study with Raine. Lloyd closed his eyes, almost able to feel the waves of heat that came from Kratos' anger.

"_Guen, guen, guen, bue' gu_?" Lloyd tasted the words from an alien language. He frowned, and rolled over so he was facing the mercenary. "It's no a command is it, "_buer' guer_" would be the command, right?"

"That's right, and no, it's not a command." Kratos looked up from polishing his blade, his dark eyes locked with Lloyd's. "It's a plea."

"What's it mean?"

"Come home. The whole song… is about someone telling someone else what home is Lloyd. That's all the song is about."

"And Angels actually sing about boring junk like that?" Lloyd snorted, rolled over. "Man, Martel worshipers are crazy sometimes."

"Sometimes…" Kratos' eyes went distant as he looked back on something only he could see. "People don't know where or what their home _is Lloyden_. It's a lesson that we think we know until we really consider it. You might consider the song sometime, you could learn from it."

"And how would I know how it goes or learn from it if I've never heard it before?" Lloyd grumbled, closing his eyes and curling a bit around his packs, he was aware of how the few pieces of jerky and one piece of bread he'd had for dinner rattled around in his mostly empty stomach.

"_Guen, guen, guen, bue' gu. _

Ut-pedu pede ped'a'il erend,

trut ne'nuhjori nu'illisal Nuhjney.

Topashi' oya'illun-use?

Muin tot'eded Orich-pend buen guen."

"Wha?" Lloyd blinked dumbly at the mercenary. "How can I understand something in Angelic?"

"Study and learn _Lloyden_, having a challenge before you will spur you to take the lessons seriously."

Lloyd grumbled something under his breath about crazy mercenaries and was annoyed when Kratos prodded him with the flat of his long sword.

"I heard that _Lloyden_, and this "crazy old fool" might very well teach you a few very painful lessons in swords craft for that comment."

"You're as bad as Raine is!" Lloyd moaned.

"I said might." Kratos nudged the Iselian again. "We have last watch, and with Aska just beginning to come to roost I believe it is safe enough to go off a ways and have a quick spar."

"You just wanna smack me with your sword."

"I might, on the rump, if you don't get out of bed."

"I'm not in bed, I'm on the ground."

"_Ne gracu-mer pshi nui, Lloyden_."

"Grouch… and I am not giving you lip." Lloyd grumbled, picking himself from the grass.

"I won't argue the first boy, as for the second you knew you were… Now, since there is no bucket available I must temporize it seems." Kratos cocked his head to the side and his lips turned up in the corners ever so slightly. "Perhaps I should find Raine to give you a quiz on Asgard's history?"

Paling at that threat, Lloyd clambered to his feet.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!"

"Heh… why am I not surprised?"

"You're evil you know that, I'd never sic Raine on anyone!"

Kratos only smirked and Lloyd brushed the worse of the grass off. His swords rattled in their sheathes so Lloyd pulled out one of the most noisy of the pair. He held a long, yet slender blade, it wasn't a rapier, it wasn't a broadsword, but something based off of a "katanna". Kratos had bought for Lloyd in Asgard when he'd picked up a new shield for himself. Lloyd absently checked the blade, shifted it around so it wouldn't jingle so much, and chuckled.

"Every town, every big monster fight, I seem to need new blades."

"Sylvarant has a very poor selection of blade. After all, the world itself is decaying, would rotten steel make a good blade?"

"No, I guess not." Lloyd frowned. "I've heard of steal rusting, I've never heard of it rotting before."

"There are many things you haven't seen or heard of before Lloyd, you are young, time will fix that." Kratos smiled, and though he was smiling there was a glimmer of pain in his eyes.

"Yeah, think of it, in five years I'll be as old as you. With aching bones and grey hair and…"

"Come along _Lloyden_…" Kratos snatched at the twin ribbons that were pinned to the long neck of his shirt by way of two buttons. The red clad swordsman let out a squawk and tried to fight as Kratos dragged him off.

Held by his "leashes" though, he couldn't get away.

X

"Maaaaan… you guys are really over doing this!" Lloyd moaned as Raine snatched his ribbons to keep him from running away. It was a small shrine that triggered Raine's ruin mode. It was made out of stone, perhaps once long ago covered in paint, the mundane boulders were bleached a dull white from lifetimes of being out in the sun. Almost falling apart, it had symbols of women, and men, and three things with wings that looked too happy to be angels. The roof was broken, almost if someone had thrown a huge rock at those long lengths of stone that served as a covering against the elements. Funny thing was… the chapel was more long then tall, it was really long -almost two barn lengths- and kinda tall -enough so that two people standing on each other's shoulders could touch the roof- but the chapel room thing didn't make sense. It wasn't built like it was meant to hold anything. The whole place was all about doors. Each of the four "walls" were little more then a big door. The openings were clogged with debris, shattered statues, rock, slabs; the openings were impassable unless you really wanted to do a lot of climbing. The only thing holding the structure up was the thick pillars on each corner.

Not that the doors were there anymore, they'd probably rotted away a long time ago.

Of course Colette thought it was a church to Martel. She found her proof with the happy green winged angels, the symbol of a woman, and since she couldn't enter the building went to the steps that were bathed in the most sunlight to pray. Genis and Raine went with her, Kratos thoughtfully snatched hold of the "leashes" and saved Lloyd from being dragged off by Raine. Although there was a scary moment when he thought he was going to be choked when Raine and Kratos held a leash a peice and both looked like they weren't going to let go. Eventually Raine let go, but not after casting Kratos a venemous glance that the mercenary ignored.

"Thanks... I think..." Lloyd rubbed his throat and Kratos nodded absently.

Shifting his sword around Kratos went to one of the temple's doors. He frowned, pulled his blade off of his belt and then began to go inside.

"Wait, remember Thodia! Are you crazy?" Lloyd hissed. "Raine will kill you!"

"Do as you will, what I do wont be influenced by that... woman's opinons."

"You're going to get us in trouble." Lloyd hissed, tromping after the older swordsman.

"You don't have to co-"

"You're going to get _us_ in trouble, Kratos." Lloyd smiled at the pleasure that warmed Kratos' eyes. "Anyways you should know if there's trouble I've gotta get into it."

Kratos chuckled, nodded, then pointed to where his blade lay. "Leave your weapons here, it's disrespectful to do otherwise."

Lloyd unhooked his sheathes and lay them besides the mercenary's broadsword, then pulled the knife that Kratos had ordered him to carry from his belt and lay it amongst the mess of steel. It was to his surprise that he realized that there were three knives scattered in the shadow of the long sword. Kratos, the man who never went anywhere unarmed, was now well... unarmed.

X

Colette prayed and Raine squealed like a kid in sugar rush in a candy store. Genis sighed and tried to concentrate on his prayers but the cries of "marvelous" were really distracting. He had to wonder how Colette was doing it, but looking at her he saw a thin line between her brows.

"M_arvelous_, this stone must date back to the-!"

Colette's blue eyes opened and there was a hint of steel in their depths that shocked Genis to his core.

"Professor Sage." Colette said quietly. "It's really really hard to pray with you screaming."

Raine was so startled at the anger in Colette's tone that she forgot her mania, it then came back in a flash, like it always did.

"Colette Brunel, I am disappointed, I had hoped that you would see the significance of this discovery..."

"Professor, could you go please scream somewhere else, please."

"I do not scream!" Raine shrieked.

"You just did." Colette pointed out calmly.

"If I am excited..." Raine began.

"Then please be excited quietly, or be loud somewhere else. I'm trying to pray to the Goddess... and I don't think she can hear me over your screaming."

Genis' mouth sagged open and Raine's eyes nearly double in size.

"I mean... she's sick and sometimes sick people have a hard time hearing... it wouldn't be very nice if my prayers didn't reach her because she couldn't hear them. And you are a little loud Professor."

Raine only could stare at her pupil and sputter as all intelligent thought abandoned her.

"Fine," Raine nodded after she spent a very long time trying to compose herself. "Genis, let's go, we'll be a little ways off but not too far..."

"Ahh... I'd like to stay here... with Colette, and uh pray." Genis squeaked.

"What? Don't you want to study this fascinating..."

Genis mutely shook his head.

"Fine," Raine almost huffed. "Lloyd, I guess you'll have to do..." Raine turned and found him gone, and Kratos was missing as well. That meant only one thing. "There's an Assassin after us and they run off to go play."

"Sheena."

Raine blinked and so did Genis.

"Her name is Sheena, and her kitty's name is Corrine."

"Kitty?" Genis protested. "I don't think cats talk Colette.'

"Well, when we see her again, I'll ask." Closing her eyes, clasping her hands in front of her, Colette went back to praying.

Genis joined in and Raine stomped off to look for the swordsmen. The wizard had to wonder as he closed his mortal eyes to the world and hopped his immortal ones would open to the Goddess' light, why his world felt like someone had shook one of it's foundations. If... no _when_ the light came, he wondered if it would allow him to understand what had just happened.

X

After squirming through the mess of stone, mainly long, slabs that had to be kinda climbed over and squirmed around they stumbled on an area that was clear of any debris. It was a circle of jade and white rock that gleamed like emeralds and marble in the sunlight which streamed from the broken ceiling. The area was so clean that even the dust didn't seem to have settled in the circle. Kratos easily leapt from the perch. It was a piece of roof that had fallen at such a steep angle they had slid down quite a ways and had to walk on the tips of their toes across line where the slab met a mess of mangled statuary. To say the least the last leg of the journey had been a tight squeeze.

Having to pick their path through the destruction, they had gone everywhere it seemed. They had climbed up to the roof, had squirmed amongst the destruction that laced the floors, they had scrambled across whole sections of the chapel that were so clogged with stone that the floor all paths seemed lost.

"The temples of my faith are few and scattered along the back of the world. Each is different. So much so, that someone who did not know that they were linked would say that each came from a differing faith." Kratos explained, he hovered in the shadows of the debris and stared into the lightened part of the chapel.

"Doesn't it? I mean the spirits are the center of everything... and if only one spirit is reveared here and worshiped then couldn't you say it does come from a different faith?" Lloyd pointed out.

Kratos shook his head, stepped into the warm sunshine and turned to look at the red clad boy intently The light gave his hair a golden sheen and streaked the folds of his black cape and tunic with muted yellow light.

"_Ne Lloyden_, that's not the case. There is one thing that exists in all of them, one thing that despite their diversity unites them."

Seeing it was safe Lloyd decided being smushed wasn't fun and made the jump down. Pulling his neck ribbons out of his eyes and pulling back his hair Lloyd tilted his head to the side.

"What'd that be?"

"Origin."

X

"I'm going to kill them, both of them. They run off without their swords out to who knows where. This has to be the most juvenile display I've seen from either of them. I don't care if Kratos sees Lloyd as his long lost son, the second I see that man he's fired! He has no judgment around Lloyd, it just all goes up in smoke because Lloyd acts childish and looks just a little like Kratos!"

Her audience of none was highly impressed with her speach. Alone, her returning ruin mode and anger were mixing into a potent brew that promised at the very least a long chat with Lloyd and the termination of the groups sole mercenary.

"Professor Sage?"

Raine turned, lost her place in her rant at the interruption. Surprised, no shocked, Raine quickly shelved her anger. Colette was the Chosen, and it would be wrong to expose the poor girl to her anger.

"Yes dear?"

Colette's soft blue eyes gleamed, almost as if with tears, then she smiled a sad little smile.

"Could I sit with you a little?"

Raine blinked, that was a strange request. "Of course sweetie."

Colette sat, turned to face the ever stirring waves of green and Raine sat besides her.

"Colette-" Raine frowned as the silence stretched between them for a long while. "-is something wrong?"

"It's something Kratos said." Colette sighed. "I don't like it but... I think he might be right."

"What did he say?" Raine felt a hint of steel creep into her tone.

"That you're scared, and you hide that you're scared by acting like this at ruins."

Raine hissed through her teeth, how _dare_ that man assume anything, much less something that erroneous about her?

"Colette, the reason I get... excited is because I find ruins fascinating." Raine smiled, the wind stirred about them and tossled her silver locks. "Sometimes it's hard to explain, but than passion is hard to explain. I like the past, and ruins are a big part of the past, and while I sometimes do get a little loud it's only because it's facinating. I can understand why Lloyd and Kratos don't like it, they have little intellectual curiosity." Raine sniffed.

"Lloyd and Genis say you act crazy sometimes. It scares them. Sometimes... it scares me a little."

Raine blinked, turned to look at her pupil.

"Colette, you shouldn't be scared of me." Raine laughed, but it sounded forced, even to her own ears.

"I'm not, I just get scared when you forget about us."

"What do you mean?" The teacher frowned.

"You forget about us sometimes, you get so excited that... it seems like your forget everything. Kratos told me that's how you hide form what you're scared of, you get excited about something else and forget about what you want to forget about. But... when you forget everything, that scares me because that means you want to forget _us_."

"Colette-" Raine gently draped an arm over the sniffling Chosen's shoulders. "-sweetie, no matter how long I live I wont forget you, or Lloyd, or anyone, I promise."

"Even Mr. Kratos?" Colette sniffled, there was a hint of a smile in the girl's tone and Raine ran her hand through Colette's golden locks.

"Well... maybe not everyone, but almost everyone."

Colette giggled and lifted her head. And though she smiled there were tears in here eyes. Tears that did not fall.

X

"Origin?"

Kratos nodded, knelt by the jade dais and Lloyd joined him.

"All things begin and end. Life, death, both is conflicts, not beginnings and endings in the great scheme of things. You are dead or alive, not both, one does not necessary lead to the other. Murder does not bring forth a life nor does the start of a life necessary lead to the elves if you need an example of that, they are born but do not die, ever. Oh, they fade away into nothing or are absorbed into the soil of their homeland, but they do not truly die. They change, perhaps in ways we don't comprehend, but they don't die."

Lloyd frowned. "I never heard about that, Genis and Raine never talk about that."

"It's not something elves really do talk about. Why you waste time trying to talk about why you breathe? Why explain to the heartless why your heart beats? It's routine, nature, a process, and not worthy of discussion amongst outsiders or even amongst themselves."

"Oh-" Lloyd frowned. "-but how do they know about it then?"

"How do you know your heartbeats?"

Lloyd blinked, considered that for a while. "Well, I can check my pulse, and I can feel it, and sometimes hear my heart beating."

"But when you don't check, how do you know it's there?"

"If it weren't, wouldn't I be in a lot of trouble, I mean I wouldn't' be alive or anything..."

Kratos chuckled. "Yes you would be in a great deal of trouble it your heart stopped beating or disappeared, but how do you know it's there?"

"It just is."

"Exactly, to the elves what happens to them "just is"."

Lloyd smiled. "Hey that wasn't to hard, why can't Raine's lectures be this easy!"

Kratos raised an eyebrow at that and gave the younger swordsman a long look.

"You're making this easy for me aren't you?"

"No," Kratos sighed. "We're actually discussing something very advanced. Ms. Sage's lectures focus on the material, she goes over the details of the world about us, on what's happened before and how that effect the current state of now, mine are... a bit more mystical. I don't place such a large value on the past. While it's important to learn the details of what happened before so we don't make the same mistakes over and over a great deal of foolishness can actually be avoided by thinking ahead and looking at events from more then one side. History, in it's obsession over facts and figures, losses that. Whole cultures, ideas, are lost in the mangle of dates and statistics."

"Well a lot of dates and statistics are kinda boring."

"Yes, if nothing else it puts the youth to sleep. There is a time however when that information might be useful, and a nodding acquaintance with some history wouldn't hurt you."

Lloyd winced. "Kraaatos, Raine's ruin-moding is scary enough, don't you join her too!"

"Me?" Kratos tried to look slightly innocent. Since the mercenary was normally cold and expressionless though the gesture looked really weird, it was so weird that it seemed hilarious. Probably because Kratos pulled it off so _badly_.

Lloyd snickered and Kratos frowned.

"What's so funny?"

"The look, on your face..." Lloyd snickered. "That sooo was not innocent."

Kratos scowled.

"_Iea-hu nu Lloyden_!"

"Sooo was too."

"Stop that, you sound like a _nus-iea_ when you do that." Kratos scolded.

"A what?"

"A fool, we've been over this before, as an adult such gestures as dragging out words make you seem like an idiot."

"Geeze... fine fine I'll stop." Lloyd plunked down on the stone floor and Kratos folded his legs under him, absently tucking his cape under him to offer some softness to the earthen chamber. "You are soo a grouch, you know that."

"And that knowledge sooo rends my heart_ Lloyden_, the agony of that insult, it brings tears to my eyes."

Lloyd frowned then picked up a small rock and threw it.

"Oh shut up!"

Kratos took the small hit with no complaint, only raised an eyebrow. "Does it not sound foolish?"

"You've made your point, don't whack me upside the head with it." Lloyd grumbled.

"It seems as if I must, some days."

"I'll get another rock." Lloyd huffed.

"As I recall you owe me a sparring match." Kratos murmured a faint hint of threat in his eyes.

"Or... I could forget about rocks." Lloyd gulped.

"A wise move."

X

"Could you perhaps explain something of the Angelic language to us, at least until Kratos and Lloyd return."

Colette blinked, startled that even in front of a ruin Raine could sound normal. Genis also seemed to be having problems with Raine's lack of ruin-mode. The two children looked at her part in worry part in fear. Despite how facinating the ruin was, despite her interest in the past, she could not forget the present or what she'd just learned.

"Well..." Colette floundered; she'd never given a lesson before. "Angelic's pretty complicated, I wouldn't know how to teach it really..."

"Nothing is so hard that it is impossible to learn it. Genis is trying and perhaps I should try too."

"It's really hard Professor, and while Genis is doing better there's so much that it's impossible to teach it to anyone really... At least that's what the priests told me."

"Nonsense, and did you think history, or government are simple subjects? You start with something easy Colette, a word, a phrase, and you work out from there."

"How about that song Kratos was singing one watch. He's a swordsman so anything he knows cant' be that hard, right?" Genis frowned as he struggled to remember it. Finally he had to look through his notes to find it.

" _Guen, guen, guen, bue' gu. _

Ut-pedu pede ped'a'il erend,

trut ne'nuhjori nu'illisal Nuhjney.

Topashi' oya'illun-use?

Muin tot'eded Orich-pend buen guen"

Colette frowned. "That's a sad song Genis. I never sung it but I know what it means. And it's really tricky because it can mean so many things. T.. Tylor used to sing it sometimes, and Grandma didn't like it."

"Well if you don't want to use it I have some notes on other stuff from the scriptures of the Book of Regeneration..." Genis offered.

"No... no I'll do it. It's not a problem, really, so don't worry about it." Colette smiled to her two elf friends.

"Why's it sad Colette?" Raine decided then and there that if it was unsuitable to children she'd order that something else be studied, after all Genis shouldn't be exposed to anything morbid, and Colette shouldn't be either. They had had more then enough of that in the Ranches and in the more frantic parts of their journey for Raine's taste.

"Because the person who sings it is talking to someone who's lost, and the person never finds thier way home. It doesn't have a happy ending."

"Sometimes things don't always end happy." Genis sighed. "Maybe that's why people make sad songs, because not everything ends well in the world."

"Probably." Raine mentally grimaced. She hated Genis to lose some of his optimism, to lose his faith in everyone around him, but that was part of growing up.

"Don't worry Genis, we'll make sure everything ends happy, I promise." Colette chirped.

"Yeah," Genis smiled. "After all we are doing the Regeneration, and that always fixes everything so everyone's happy."

"Yep, that's right!"

Only Raine noticed the strain in Colette's tone, and the faint hint of fear in her eyes. The Professor reached out, took Colette's hand in her own.

"You should probably start at the beginning of the song Colette. The first word comes first, then move onto the second. It's more logical to begin a lesson at the beginning then go out from there."

"Thanks professor, I'll remember that." Colette chirped, and Raine had a feeling that she was being thanked for so much more.

"_Guen_; means home, or sanctuary." Colette began. "It changes to _gu_ when someone asks something about the home or sanctuary. Ummm like "is your house pretty?" -would be- "_us-gu' yan?_".

"Oh, where's the "us" come from?" Genis had even raised his hand, as if Raine were teaching, Coletete giggled at that and then explained.

_"Us_, or _ust_, you can use both it doesn't matter, means "you" or "your". _Ust_ is a tiny bit more formal then _us_..."

Genis was burrowing through his packs and fumbled out paper and charcoal stick and began to take notes.

"So then, "guen guen bu gu"is a question?" Raine hazarded.

"No... no it's not a question, it wouldn't make sense because "_buen_" means "_come"_ and because it's spelt like "_guen_" it get's changed the same way. And it's said _bow goh_, not _boo goo_. _Boo goo_ sounds a little silly."

"Then-" Raine paused, allowed Genis to catch up in his writing. Raine didn't have the parchment to spend on notes in Angelic, but she resolved to buy a notebook at the next town to write down everything Colette would teach them. "-'come home" can't be a question, can it? At least not in common, or elven, does the angelic language have a different concept of what a question is?"

"Oh no... It's just when something isn't sure... well you ask without asking. But you don't ask as a question. It's a... a soft question, something that should be an order but isn't one."

"A request then." Raine guessed.

Colette nodded. "Normally a request is said with tone, or with a please in front of it... but because it isn't set up like that it might be mean something else. Maybe they changed it a little so it could be sung better."

"What is the meaning if it isn't changed for the song?" Raine pressed, she smiled at the sound of Genis frantically writing, it was so quiet, so peaceful with the birds singing that if the wind were to be still they could have been back in Iselia having an after school study and dinner session.

"That the person singing is begging the person listening to come home. It would be personal, very personal, especially if the pleading tone and the changed format were used together at the same time."

Raine and Genis blinked in confusion.

"It would be a song that no one else was supposed to hear, something private, really private and personal between the singer and the listener... It might not even be a song then, but a prayer."

"Angelic's really subtle isn't it?" Genis said at last.

"It can be," Colette giggled. "It's fun that way. You can say a lot with only saying a little."

X

"_Origin_ is eternal as is _Apocalypse_... or perhaps it should better be called _Lachyen Nuhj'ney tal._ It becomes a bit crude when translated over from the old tongue to modern speach, but it means "_the beginning, the end, of all_" it's a rule almost." Kratos drummed his fingers against his leg; he'd been struggling through this most of his adult life, to explain it to a child would be very difficult. "All things which have a beginning must heaven end. Everything is in conflict with everything else. Life and death conflict over anything with a soul. After all you can be alive or dead, you can not be both, as death and life are opposites, right?"

"I guess..." Lloyd frowned, rubbed his head. "I take back what I said, this _is_ hard."

"Most worthwhile things are, it's just knowing how to recognize what's worth the struggle and what isn't that's the trick."

"Head... hurting..." Lloyd clutched his skull as if in agony and Kratos snorted. "Really... it does hurt Kratos. This thinking thing's hard, can't you Raine smack me and make me dumb again?"

"You weren't dumb to begin with, just stubborn and short sighted. A person who can master two languages is no fool."

Lloyd rolled his eyes and plopped down on his side.

"However the person who falls asleep during one of my explanation might very well be."

"I'm not gunna sleep, promise."

Kratos snorted, the only sound was the quiet tap of Kratos' fingers drumming, then he went still.

"Everything starts somewhere."

"Yeah..." Lloyd wondered why Kratos was saying something that dumb.

"Origin is the first start and the last start. When I speak of Origin I speak of the beginning of everything. Not just say... the first link in a chain of events, or even the first human to be crafted. Origin is the beginning of existence, perhaps it was the first thought that birthed the nameless creators, what I know for a certain is that whatever the form Origin took, it was a break. Creation, creators, they are a break in the perfection of nothing, or _Apocalypse_."

Lloyd frowned. "What _is_ Origin, Kratos."

"No human mind could comprehend what the Origin is, oh we can speculate, if it is a thought as some might say, what of the mind that made the thought? If it is the light, what of the source? If mana was the beginning, what life was there that made it? Are you familiar with the saying _what came first, the chicken or the egg_?"

"I've heard who took my chicken and ate my omelet?"

Kratos groaned, he put a hand to his head and rubbed at the skin above his eyebrows as it to smooth out a headache.

"It means..." Kratos frowned. "You were born from your parents, correct?"

"Well no duh." Lloyd snapped. "What'd you think, I crawled out from a rock?"

"Where did your parents come from?"

"You know I don't know that!" Lloyd flared.

Kratos scowled and Lloyd shrank back from the mercenary.

"That is not what I meant _Lloyden_, and you know it."

"S... sorry..." Lloyd gulped.

The mercenary sighed, leaned against a large pile of rubble and stared up into the light.

"You were born from your parents, as were your parents born from theirs, and so on and so forth. If that's the case then where does it start at?"

"Well that depends, Colette would say Martel and the Angels. Raine would probably name some crazy civilization like the people who live on the moon..."

"And I would say, Origin. I would be the only one out of all your friends to say "I don't understand, nor could I ever understand"."

"There aren't many answers, are there." Lloyd said at last. "If you can't answer the beginning..."

"I just did. Something happened, something is occurring, and I am not the cause of it or even a main player in the grand scheme of things. Angels look like humans _Lloyden_, we can understand them because they look like us and talk to us in a way we can comprehend."

Lloyd frowned, looked as if he was going to say something but Kratos rose a hand and Lloyd went silent.

"That begs the question, who made who? Were we made in their image or did they make themselves in ours? If something was made by humans, or influenced by humans, how could that be the cause of Origin? If Origin is by definition _the beginning beyond comprehension_, how can it come in the form of that which we comprehend?"

"It... can't..."

Kratos smiled. "Exactly."

"If... the angels are lying about something that big then we can't trust them... and if we can't trust them or understand what's really going on, then what?"

"We busy ourselves with the conflicts of the world." Kratos said. "Life, death, good, evil, they are opposites, conflicts. Humans, most creatures, comprehend conflict and strife."

Lloyd blinked.

"Elements are conflicts _Lloyden_. What good is wind when it runs over nothing, what good is earth not stirred or nourished by the wind? What is skyfire but caged in heaven with no water to ride down upon? And what would water do if it could not sooth the wraith of the skyflame and mend what its thoughtless fury breaks? What is winter but a frozen eternal death without summer to temper the ice maiden's presence and remind us that there is heat and life still in our bones?"

"Martel says we'll come to peace, that there is peace if you join her." Lloyd said slowly.

"The dead are the most peaceful lot in all the world _Lloyd_, death is the ultimate stilling of the conflicts that we can understand."

Lloyd shivered at that thought, remembered the picture of the angels and the destruction around them. They weren't moved, were still and uncaring. They could have been dead for all he knew.

"No comfort, huh?" He said at last.

"Not one bit in the world, save only this. You aren't alone. You may not like the company _Lloyden_, it may be that only the elements of the world will be at your side. But at least they are no longer lifeless extensions of something you can not trust."

"And I'm not alone." Lloyd tasted those words.

"Never in life, never in death."

"That's enough for me." Lloyd grinned. "Well unless they're annoying, then I'd kinda -er kind of would like to be alone, but I'll manage somehow."

Kratos leaned into the shadows and the sunlight streamed down and pushed back the gloom a little, just enough to let Lloyd see that the mercenary was smiling.

X

"Lloyd Irving, where were you?" Raine snapped as he rounded the corner of the temple and saw his friends sprawled out on the soft grass with paper in front of them.

Lloyd ran his hand through his hair and some dust came out. He was covered in dust and white rock, and was grinning widely.

"Just went somewhere to think."

"You mean nap." Genis rolled his eyes.

"Eh... whatever." Lloyd shrugged, shifted his swords around.

"And you, Kratos Aurion, I expected some maturity out of you." Raine's tone was razor sharp and Lloyd winced.

"I felt Lloyd should have some company, and your ranting about ruins tries my patience to near breaking Ms. Sage."

Raine's eyes grew -if at all possible- even harder and her tone became acidic. "Mr. Aurion, your job is to protect Colette, not to leave when it becomes an inconvenience to you."

Kratos nodded, took the rebuke silently and then looked to Colette.

"If you are ready to move on Chosen then we should get to walking, the ruins are still a three days walk from here and we only have two days left before our agreement with the assassin is up."

"Sheena." Colette corrected.

"I don't give those I kill names, Chosen, it makes the matter of killing them harder than it should be."

"You don't think she'd try something at the seal, do you?" Lloyd protested.

"Why not? Any place is as good as another when it comes to killing.

Genis shuddered, Colette looked a little sick, and Raine gave the mercenary a long look.

"I believe that is enough Mr. Aurion, more then enough."

Kratos smiled, a dry mocking smile that made his eyes gleam with wicked mirth.

"As you will."

X

No fire offered warmth, the children were curled up in blankets and sleeping, Kratos looked up at the stars, let his undrunk cap of water tilt ever so slightly and trickle to the grassy earth. The plants muffled the sound, satisfied it was empty he put the cap over his canteen and strapped it to his belt.

"That's very wastefull Mr. Aurion."

"Most offerings are Ms. Sage." Kratos murmured, not taking his eyes from the stars.

Raine said nothing, she would not talk to him of religion, which was fine by him.

"Go to sleep Ms. Sage, it will be a long day tomorrow."

"I want to know what you are talking to Lloyd about."

"It's none of your concern, if he wants to tell you that's for him to do."

"He wont talk to me about it. He said I wouldn't understand." Raine snapped.

"Then trust his judgment and leave him alone."

Raine shot to her feet, walked up to him, he coolly met her eyes.

"You're pressing him, making him forsake everything because you want to force him to be something he isn't. Your son died Kratos, he died a long time ago by your words. Lloyd isn't your son. Have you even told him about that, or are you just not bringing it up?"

"He already knows, he knows more about me then most ever have known. He accepts me despite that, or perhaps because of it." Kratos shrugged. "Until he tells you, until he feels you can understand, then he isn't going to talk and I won't either."

"I want something crystal clear between us Kratos Aurion." Raine whispered. "He respects you, looks up to you, but he already has a family. He's found it, in Colette, Dirk, Genis, and I."

Kratos smirked. "I am aware of that." He looked beyond Raine, focused on the stars.

His tranquil reaction though spurred Raine's anger to greater heights.

"If you hurt him..." Raine hissed. "If you ever take advantage of him in any way..."

Kratos' eyes flicked onto her, a deadly glimmer was housed in their depths.

"I would never hurt him, ever."

"The second I doubt your judgment, the second I see you stepping over any line beyond the acceptable in any situation Mr. Aurion, you'll lose not only your contract but a great deal of your health. As a healer I know how people are put together, just remember that I'm more then capable of taking apart what's put together. I don't like his secrecy, and I don't like what I'm seeing of your obsession, the second I consider it dangerous to him in anyway I will drive you off."

"So the fact he cares for me, concerns you?" Kratos raised an eyebrow, the gesture and tone were laced with challenge.

"He is young, innocent, you are anything but. You've killed people, and you are training him to do the same. You are actively isolating him from his friends, you have a violent temper that's matched with an equally violent streak, and you are possessive. Don't delude yourself in thinking that I missed your tantrums before Thodia and PalmaCosta."

Kratos gritted his teeth. "You can't understand Ms. Sage, in that Lloyd is most correct, you are incapable of understanding anything." Raine's eyes flashed and her hand snapped through the air, only to be caught and restrained by a grip that might have better suited iron then a mortal man. "Don't ever try that again Ms. Sage. I've killed for less then that."

He released her and she stepped back, staring at the finger-shaped bruises along her wrist.

"Get out of here..." She hissed. "The second Iget to a town I'll sent that letter to Phadria."

"Go right ahead Ms. Sage." Kratos turned his attention to the sky. "It seems as if you are the one living in delusion if you haven't figured it out. The money was a nice enough bonus I guess... but it's not about the money. It hasn't been about the money, there isn't enough money in PalmaCosta _much less Iselia_ to buy out my services."

"What is it about then?"

Kratos laughed, it was a dark and bitter sound.

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

"Why waste the effort withon a fool? We both want the same thing, that's all you need to know."

"The Regeneration of the world."

Kratos smirked up at her. "Call it what you will."

Raine gnashed her teeth in rage. "I want the truth Kratos Aurion, and only the truth."

"Wanting is not the same as getting."

"All I have to do is show Lloyd these bruises; he'll turn on you in a heartbeat."

And Raine had him, she had cornered him, blocked him by threatening the one thing he cared for. Kratos' eyes seethed with hatred and fire writhed in thier depths as he planed and schemed. And the fire died as he came up with nothing, there were no evasions for this.

"I have a vendetta to settle, a debt that needs paying, the Regeneration is a way for me to do so."

"What debt?"

"The killing of the Desians." Kratos said curtly.

"Why?" Raine pressed.

"My reasons are my own."

"Not good enough." Raine snapped, turning on her heel she strode in Lloyd's direction. Kratos stiffened; because her back was turned to him she missed the desperation flash across his face, desperation settled into anger. He spat the last words, making no pains to hide his hatred.

"They killed my family and made me _watch_, exterminating them would nicely settle the score between us."

Raine shuddered, refused to turn to face the man.

"I distinguish between my foes Ms. Sage, I don't kill all half elves, just the Desian's. But killing is killing, and I've no qualms about the blood on my hands." Kratos' eyes darkened. "Regret, yes, if there had been any other way I might have taken it. But there isn't, what happened has happened, and it has shaped me into what I am. You may not understand my thought, or my reasons, but for now we go in the same direction and my goal helps you in yours. That's all you need to know."

"Does Lloyd know about..."

"No, and he won't. He has enough anger on his own, he doesn't need mine added to the blaze. Now, he can control it, but if he found even more reason to hate them, he might very well lose that control. He would be consumed, and that is the one thing I can't defend him against." Kratos' lips quirked into a dark smile. "After all, it's a battle I've lost long ago."

"I don't trust you." Raine whispered.

"You don't need to."

The silver haired elf shivered as Kratos' voice, a mere breath, whispered against her back. Dangerous, he was dangerous to her, to her brother, to all of them.

"Your trust has never been part of my agenda, and the only reason you live is because the Chosen needs you. I assure you, the second she no longer does I will stop protecting you."

"And if Lloyd cares for me, even if -somehow- Colette no longer does?"

Kratos went quiet for a long time.

"I will protect my Client, and Lloyd with my life. If you are somehow relevant to Lloyd's continued sanity, then yes I will... but if ever I judge you less then I am in the boy's eyes... accidents happen and I can not be everywhere at once Ms. Sage."

"My brother..."

"He is a child, so long as he remains one I will try to protect him. But you have to understand I'm rather busy at the time, protecting two other children, my attention isn't on him as much as it is on the Chosen or Lloyd... But then why get so upset?" Kratos murmured, it was as if he could see the horror in the elf woman's eyes. If there was horror he mocked it with a slight curl of his lips. "You knew this already didn't you? You more or less said the same thing to my face on occasion, and I'm not fool enough to miss that you heal everyone but me when it comes to combat. Just protect your own Ms. Sage and I'll do the same."

"No human is as cold as you are, no elf, no half elf..."

"Time as made me as I am, time and circumstance Ms. Sage. You don't have to like me, you don't have to trust me, I'll do my job and that's all there is to it."

"You'll do your job." Raine murmured. "and you'll lose your son... or rather another man's son, whom you are stealing. We both know what's going to happen, and we both know what that will do to Lloyd."

"Do we?" Kratos hissed. "Do we understand anything, really? Do you understand anything?"

"I understand that when Lloyd sees you as you are, he will hate you."

Kratos laughed softly. "He'd be wiser if he did. But I will have my memories of this time, and that will be enough. That will be more then enough."

X

"Proffesor, what's wrong?" Lloyd walked up to the silver haired elf, she's seemed glum and non-ruin mode-ish and he began to really get worried when Genis said he didn't want to cook, and Kratos said he didn't want to cook, and Raine hadn't hopped at the opportunity to kill them all- um cook for them.

In response to the question Raine sighed, smoothed down some imaginary wrinkles in her orange coat, and then cast a glance at the mercenary. Grudgingly the man nodded and Raine grimaced.

"Kratos and I had a very long discussion last night. I don't like the agreement that we've reached, but then that's mutual I guess. Kratos has agreed to stop isolating you from Genis and myself and I have agreed to stop interfering with your swords practices and what time you chose to spend in his company."

Lloyd blinked. "You mean Genis isn't going to be yelling stupid stuff at me when I'm trying to practice with Kratos anymore?"

Raine sighed. "I won't be present, nor will Genis be. Unless you say otherwise, of course."

"Alright!" Lloyd grinned. "Hear that Genis, no more yelling at me when I sword practice!"

"Raaaaine... what's good swords practice if I can't heckle at him while he's practicing?" Genis whined.

"Children!" Raine snapped, and both boys looked up at her in shock. "I would appreciate it if you both would stop fighting, just for a moment!" Taking a deep breath the elf scholar composed herself. "I have a bit of a headache. I'm sorry, but I'm feeling a bit out of sorts."

"Hey Genis, look through my packs, there's a pouch, red with black strings, could ya bring it here?"

"Alright..." Genis looked at his sister and friend in confusion, and then focused on opening the sack. "Huh... all it's got is a bunch of leaves."

"Yeah, leaves." Lloyd shrugged. "Colette do we have any firewood?"

"Yep, I'll set up a fire!"

"Great, then Kratos can start it."

Raine made a choked noise and Kratos growled in his throat.

"Fine, I'll do it myself." Lloyd snapped, he firmly grabbed Raine's arm and dragged her to the nearest rock, ignoring the elf's stream of protests that she was fine. "Un uh Professor, if your sick we should at least give you some medicine before we leave camp."

"The Assassin would find us easy targets if we sat and waited for your... teacher to recover from every headache, scrape, and small pain that she picks up while traveling." Kratos growled.

Genis muttered something in elvish and Kratos snarled at the child.

"Kratos," Lloyd's voice grew cold, sharp. "Why don't you and Colette go around the parameter and check for monsters, maybe clean up some of our tracks, I'm gunna stay with Raine for a little."

Kratos' dark eyes smoldered, but he nodded and the mercenary and Chosen left. The second they were gone, and Genis went into spell chant and was distracted enough Lloyd gently reached out and took the arm Raine had been cradling since waking up. He stared at the bandaged arm in shock.

"Professor... you weren't hurt yesterday, what happened?"

"I.. attacked a monster, was attacked, it was just my lack of foresight really. It got a good grip on my arm and left some bruises Lloyd. Really, it's not all that bad."

"I've got some gells left and we could rub in noe, maybe give you a little tea for your headache, that way you'll feel better an- Professor!"

Raine jerked her arm back out of his grasp and shook her head.

"I'm alright, really, you shouldn't be making this much fuss over me..."

The rest of the bandages that had started to come undone fell away with a sigh and Lloyd stared in horror at the human shaped bruise on Raine's arm. Lloyd trembled; he went pale then red with fury.

"Kratos did this!"

"And is what he did to you in Triet any worse, or somehow any better? Like you I surprised him and he responded."

"How did you know about..."

"He told me, last night we talked and that was part of what we talked about. But before we talked I lost my temper and slapped him, or was going to. He caught my hand and..." She left it hanging and Lloyd swallowed down something hot and bitter.

"He should have at least healed you!" Lloyd snapped.

Raine put a finger to her lips and Lloyd snapped his teeth together hard, so he wouldn't yell anymore.

"He won't heal me, ever. He wants nothing to do with my brother and I. He will never heal me, he wont even protect me anymore. He said he might protect Genis, but I highly doubt that."

Lloyd growled and Raine closed her eyes.

"Help me re-bandage my arm please."

Lloyd stared at her in shock.

"If Genis finds out he will attack Kratos, Kratos will defend himself and Genis would get hurt. I can't allow that Lloyd, I must protect Genis..."

"Fine," Lloyd picked up the fabric and despite looking ticked was gentle in rewinding the cloth. "I swear I'm going to beat the crap out of Kratos for this. If he hurts you and hurt Genis maybe he shouldn't even be here."

"He can't leave Lloyd, he backed me into a corner with his logic, we can't complete this journey without him, we would be killed." Raine sighed, pulled the sleeve of her coat over her arm. "Never ask me to help him Lloyd, because as he swore he would never help me I will never help him."

X

They walked, the silence was omni-present and tense. Even Noishe's tail remained drooped and dragged across the ground. Kratos had tried to talk to him, Lloyd had coldly told Kratos to hang with Noishe.

"Why, what has gotten into-"

"You weren't going to tell me, were you-" Lloyd hissed so he wouldn't be overheard. Genis was out of hearing shot and Colette seemed intent in watching the path, but that could change. "-about Raine's arm?"

Kratos stiffened then gnashed his teeth together to quell a number of profane and sharp rebuttals.

"Would you listen to my end of it, would you even consider..."

"No, just go away."

The mercenary stormed off to do as ordered, and it surprised Lloyd a little that Kratos would actually listen to him.

That shock was a numb point, a drop of calm in the roaring anger that licked against his reason. As if sensing his state, Kratos stayed with Noishe and made a point of staying out of the range of Lloyd's sight. Not that Kratos kinda avoiding him took away that gaze. Those dark eyes, they locked onto him, bore into him, and he could feel it. Finally Lloyd suddenly stopped in the center of the road, it was so sudden that Genis, who'd been trailing behind him, smacked into his leg. Lloyd ignored that for a moment, clenched his hands into fists, and stared straight ahead.

"For the love of Luna, would you stop it already Kratos? I'm not a damn window!" Lloyd could feel the gaze slid off of him and settle on Raine. "And don't bother the Professor, she didn't put me up to it!"

"Really, then who did?" Kratos spat.

"You did."

There was a long silence. Kratos' glare and all it's hostility were focused on him now, and under that gaze Lloyd wanted to do nothing but run and not stop running. He gathered up the last bit of his courage and turned to meet the mercenary's stare with one of his own.

"I'm pissed because of something you did." Lloyd hissed. "I'm not going to say what it was, we both know what it was, so I don't need to. I'm mad and you don't have anyone but yourself to blame. Maybe Raine baited you, but you should have just left before it got to the point of where it went."

"If you knew what she had said you wouldn't hold blame to me..." Kratos hissed.

"Yeah, I would, maybe she started it, but you got involved. You're responsible too, you both are."

Raine's eyes setled onto him and was almost as hard as Kratos'.

"Yeah, I said you both are." Lloyd snapped. "You're stupid fighting and stuff... It's driving me crazy, and I don't want anything to do with either of you until you're done fighting with each other."

"Lloyd Irving..." Raine began.

"Professor. No."

"You are being illogical and..."

"Not listening to you Professor! There's a lotta road so I'm gunna get to walking, you guys can come along or not, I don't really care right now."

Raine sputtered, tried a few more times to get Lloyd to reply but he only kept walking.

Lloyd went a few feet and suddenly stopped again. This time Genis managed to stop before plowing into his friend.

"Noishe, come!"

"Whine?"

"Now Noishe!"

Ears slicked back Noishe padded up to the red clad swordsman. Lloyd set a hand between his dogs ears and scritched, letting Noishe know he wasn't in trouble like the adults were.

"Genis, Colette." Raine snapped, and the brother and Chosen came to her.

"You are digging your grave boy." Kratos hissed, his hand winding around the hilt of his blade.

Lloyd ignored them all, petted Noishe while he walked, and it was a long tense walk where no one said a single word for miles. Miles that became hours, that spanned from noon to dinner. Genis cooked, the meal was bland, no one commented, maybe no one noticed. Lloyd took Noishe, took the far side of thier camp, and then lay down with his dog. Raine lectured, but it seemed half hearted, and Kratos ran the whet stone over his blade and the polishing cloth over it so many times Genis had to wonder when the weapon was going to turn to dust under the constant friction.


	25. Unexpected encounter

Chapter 25 EDITED

(Thanks Sapphire!)

_A/N: Man, never, I mean never, underestimate the kids in this group…. Genis shines, and so does Lloyd, in this chapter, some Kratos angst at the end._

"At the very least explain why!" Kratos' anger was threaded with a note of desperation; Lloyd remained silent and kept walking. _"Ish-ya, Lloyden, secan mereth!"_

"You can yell all you want, Kratos, I'm not talking to you." Lloyd snapped over his shoulder.

"Lloyd." Raine hissed as she walked up to the swordsman. "You're pushing Kratos too far, he's not even sane and…"

"Not now, Professor," Lloyd snapped. Shaking off her hand from his shoulder, he went back to walking while Colette and Genis looked on in shock.

Almost like a charm, or more like habit, Raine turned on Kratos. Noishe's ears slicked back as the two adults began to fight, each putting the blame squarely on the other. Colette looked uncomfortable and walked a little faster to put some distance between herself and the adults. Genis' pale face went red with anger as the fight went on and on and Lloyd didn't do anything to stop it. Because Lloyd didn't act, Raine and Kratos started to get vicious with each other, both drawing from the more colorful sides of elvish to describe exactly who's fault it was, and why.

"Just shut up!" Genis screamed.

Raine's eyes nearly popped out of her head, she'd rarely seen her brother lose his temper before; normally he was as cool headed and calm as she was.

But then, today seemed to be full of surprises.

"I can't stand it, you two keep fighting over everything and it's not just driving Lloyd crazy, it's driving me and Colette crazy too! Just grow up or something and stop fighting!"

Raine sputtered, even Kratos seemed taken aback, but both adults were nearly struck dead from their surprise when Colette turned to them and nodded her head to indicate she agreed with Genis.

"Five," Lloyd announced mysteriously, turning his back to the adults as he went back to walking. Genis scrambling to keep pace with the long legged swordsman.

"Nah, three."

"I'd say nine!" Colette chirped, skipping up to her friends.

"Bark!" Noishe put in firmly.

"Bark's not a number, Noishe," Lloyd sighed.

"Whinnne…"

"One of these days you'll figure out how to talk but I guess it's not now, but I bet when you do talk you'll be good at it!"

"That's the way to look at it Lloyd!" Colette cheered.

"The Chosen's attitude... is contagious…" Kratos muttered that under his breath and grimaced in disgust.

"Was that the wind?" Lloyd growled. "Must have been. Anyway, nine's giving them waaay too much credit Colette."

"Giving _who_ too much credit?" Raine snapped.

"Rather windy, isn't it?" Genis smirked, and then he drew out his kendama and allowed the ball's tapping to give him a rhythm to his lecture. "The phenomenon must be due to the proximity of the Seal of Wind. You see, an altar of Cruxis gives off waves of mana which, unlike most mana, has a signature aura or element. In short, it merely amplifies the land's natural mana."

"Maybe eight?" Colette hazarded.

"I'd say three." Genis grinned. "Their maturity rivals a three-year-old throwing a tantrum."

"What was that!" Raine shrieked.

"Can three-year-olds have tantrums?" Lloyd mused. "Aren't they a little young for that? I thought five-year-olds had tantrums."

As the debate went on, Kratos began to struggle holding back his venom-slicked responses while Ranie's eyes promised all the children a firm Raine-ing. But their threats and their anger fell on deaf ears. Or rather, it fell upon ears that refused to hear. It was at first frustrating, then slowly shifted to frustrating to terrifying. It was almost as if they were being locked out of something, deliberately, maliciously being locked out of the only place in the world with a bit of warmth and light. Yet there was no door, no key, no walls; the sun shone upon them and the wide expanse of the Asgard plains rolled about them as they trod over it. They were free… and yet closed off. Together… yet abandoned.

And by the quiet desperation that replaced the burning hate in Kratos' eyes, the mercenary could see it too, and did not like it in the least.

X

_The isolation was total, and it was destroying them._

Kratos had ceased even trying to talk and had watched with no small envy the children tighten the walls of their friendship about them to make up for the "absence" of the adults. While Kratos and Raine hovered on the outskirts of the children's collective awareness, the children talked and gossiped and pointedly ignored them both. They weren't talked to, nothing was pointed out to them; they could have been ghosts for all the attention they were given.

The only slight comfort was that when Lloyd's eye did drift in his direction. There was a hint of pain and loneliness, and then the wall of indifference was in place again.

And as surely as Lloyd's eyes would accidentally slide over him, Genis' eyes strayed to his sister.

They would break, but what side first? And what would result from the breaking? If it were the children, they would tender an apology, and the adults would graciously accept it, and things would go on as they had before. If it were the adults, he could not guess Raine's reaction. Perhaps some crying and sniveling, but on his end… He always feared madness -which was an all too real possibility considering all he'd seen and done in his life- and he knew a rational man did not take pleasure in the pained gaze of a child. Yet it was the only pleasure for him: it was an echo of the old friendship, the old warmth.

He shivered and drew his cape tightly about him. It was a futile exercise that the wind mocked by tugging at his cloak and laughing amongst the blades of grass that tangled around his knees.

Genis squeaked, perching himself on Lloyd's shoulders so he could see. The boy excitedly chirped out something and pointed. Kratos shook himself and stared blankly at the mess of tents and dull-hued pennons flapping in the breeze.

"Trading Caravan?" Lloyd wondered.

"No…" Kratos frowned; his voice came out almost rusty from disuse. "No wagons."

"What's that have to do with it?" Genis blinked.

"No wagons, no stuff to hold stuff, so probably no stuff to trade," Lloyd explained before Kratos could snap something cutting.

"Ohh… maybe it's a pilgrimage!" Colette chirped.

"Those flags look black." Lloyd frowned, one hand drifted to the hilt of his sword. "Don't Martel people hate black?"

Colette nodded, and the cheer left her too. It seemed as if Lloyd's somber mood was as catchy as Colette's cheer.

"Should we go up and see what's going on?" Genis hazarded.

Lloyd's hands clenched on the hilts of his blade, released, clenched again, then released.

"I…" And in that tone Kratos could almost hear the plea that someone else take charge, just this once. "I don't like it, but I don't know what to do," Lloyd said at last.

"Oh come on, Lloyd!" Genis teased. "You always know what to do!"

"We could go around I guess…"

"I could scout ahead." Kratos offered.

"No, I'll go ahead." Lloyd fiddled with his swords some more. "Me and Noishe have been doing it for years."

"This might be a little more dangerous than sneaking up on Ivan, Lloyd," Colette whispered.

"Come on, Noishe," Lloyd called. "Let's go, boy!"

"Bark!" Shaking himself sharply, the horse-sized dog shrugged off the straps and mess of gear and wormed out of their baggage by only taking one step back. "Woof bark!"

Lloyd pulled himself onto Noishe, and settled himself onto the curve of the animal's mid-back. The ease he did so attested to years of Noishe riding experience.

"Now, no howling if you see bunnies!" Lloyd scolded affectionately. "Got that?"

"Whine?" The sound could have well been a "who me?" comment.

"Yes, you!" Lloyd smirked, leaning forward and grabbing a fistful of mane in each hand. "Let's go!"

"Bark!"

Taking one look over his shoulder to see that his rider was firmly in place, Noishe dug his paws into the sod then charged down towards the camp, as silent as the night wind.

X

"An hour. That's all the time I will give him, an hour," Kratos growled, pacing back and forth. The man's black cape snapped behind him, like a vile oath, the sound was harsh, sudden, and came at every turn. "Then I'm going after him."

**"**You're just presumingthat something bad is going to happen," Genis pointed out. "He's done this sort of thing a lot when we were avoiding Ivan or pulling a prank. Lloyd knows how to hide."

Raine blinked and stared at her little brother.

"Lloyd _hid_ from Ivan."

Genis nodded. "When it was just Ivan who had a sword Lloyd would fight, but when Ivan's friends started getting swords…" Genis winced. "Or rather when Ivan's friends almost turned Lloyd into dog meat after one nasty fight, Lloyd started running and hiding more then fighting."

Raine could have no more believed that then she could have believed it if Lloyd suddenly became fluent in say… Angelic overnight.

"Genis... I find that hard to believe, he never came to me hurt… not that often anyways."

"There were some things he didn't talk about. Getting hurt meant he was weak; he didn't want to admit it so he always hid after a fight went bad."

"How often did he do that?" Raine asked. "And why didn't he tell me about how bad it was getting – why didn't you tell me at least? He was putting himself in danger every time..."

Genis just hunched miserably into himself and stared at the plains, at the camp… anything but his sister.

"I know... and he asked me not to tell you, so I didn't. But every time he was late, I mean really late, he was in a fight with Ivan, or had to sneak past Ivan to get into town." Genis sat down, tucked his knees under his chin and stared at the camp. His dark eyes darted around, trying to pick out a hint of silver and green, or a flash of red. "Every time... you yelled at him and he didn't do anything wrong..." The small wizard's hands clenched, like talons, and he sank them into his legs, not caring about the pain. "He tried to do everything right and all you did was get mad at him. M... Marble used to say to wait, to hope that things would get better... But all they've done is got worse."

Before Raine could say anything, before Colette could promise that the Regeneration was going to make e_verything_ all right, a shadow fell over the small elf. Kratos knelt, reached out, and with a gentleness that shocked Raine to her core, placed one hand under her brother's chin and forced Genis to look into his black eyes.

"Had he stayed in Iselia he would have been killed. He no longer is in Iselia, therefore he is safer. While this journey is not safe by any stretch of the imagination he is alive, _that's_ how things are better."

"He's miserable because you're fighting with Raine."

"I said he was better off, not happy."

His face pale, marked with thin streams of water, the wizard looked up into the warrior's dead eyes. Looked past the tangle of auburn locks, and into the black yet some how brown eyes of the mercenary.

"Whose fault is that?"

Kratos winced, as the child with only twelve years of life justly rebuked him.

Though she was not on the receiving end of that accusing blue-eyed glare, Raine winced as both the words and tone not directed at her hit home.

X

The tents were empty; no one seemed to be around. Fire pits had been dug, wood, blankets, pots, pans, food, all had been set aside. It was like someone had been setting up a camp and then had… just walked away.

"Whine!"

"It's alright. Noishe." Lloyd reached out and patted his dog on the head. "No one's here…"

And maybe that's what made it un-alright. No one was here, and while he was used to the sound of wind over plain there should have been something… people sounds, voices, but there was none. The hairs on the back of his neck were pricked up, his ears straining to hear even the slightest sound. And all he heard was the sigh of wind over ground, the rustle of grass being played with by Sylph.

Frowning, the swordsman knelt; he stared at the pair of tracks. Long, steady, parallel gouges in the ground made a trail that lead to the forest...

"Come on Noishe, let's follow these for a little 'fore we head back."

"Whiiine."

"Stop being such a baby, come on!"

Noishe only lay down, right in the center of the deserted camp and stared at him with wide brown eyes.

"Alright, fine, I'll go." Lloyd grumbled something about chickens, but even as he did so he had to admit that part of him –a new cautious part that Kratos probably had smacked into him during swords practice- was wondering if Noishe might not be making the smart decision. Well, being new it was kinda small and his enthusiasm and curiosity made it easy for him to ignore. "I'll be back in a bit."

Noishe whined. His tail wagged in a good-bye wave even though his eyes silently begged him not to go.

X

"It's been half an hour already!" Kratos hissed. As the minutes trickled by, the Iselians had the dubious pleasure of watching the mercenary's temper deteriorate as well as his mask of composure. Raine firmly escorted Colette a safe distance away from the man's profane mutterings, but for once Genis didn't join his sister, or Colette. Kratos scared him when he was calm, not when he angry like this.

When Kratos was like this, he was like a kid throwing a tantrum, and that wasn't scary, it was somewhat funny actually…

"Why do you care? You don't care about anyone anyway," Genis snapped; he tapped the spiked orb of his kendama against the steel platted limbs which jutted out from the strange weapon's sides while he talked.

Kratos flicked one eye on the elf child, his lips curled into a mocking half smile.

"After all you've seen, you believe your sister?"

"Your threads?" Genis sniffed. "They showed you _cared_ for someone. Not that you care now."

Now that Kratos wasn't pacing, now that he was still, the man's cape fluttered down until it tangled about the man's ankles.

"Death changes nothing, not the depth of my feelings for the person who you _Saw_. Do you forget your friends the second your back is turned from them? No more -I imagine- than I forget mine who lay under the sod."

Genis snorted, tapping a monotonous one-two beat with his kendama, fitting his words with the rhythm of the "tick tap" of his play.

"You're caring for Lloyd is just part of your maladjusted social tendencies. Those tendencies lead you to obsess over someone who's obviously deceased – someone who has been deceased for years. The trauma of separation coupled with your mental instability make you believe that you can redeem yourself by forming a totally unhealthy bond with Lloyd and has you currently supplanting him –in your mind- as your offspring."

Kratos raised an eyebrow.

"So, Raine told you."

"No, I figured it out after Palma Costa. I'm short, not stupid."

"You're arrogant, naïve, both you and your sister. Neither one of you are equipped to understand anything beyond intellectual curiosity and acquaintanceship."

The kendama made an interesting clack noise as it missed its mark and grazed the limb on the left side instead of hitting it full on. Because of the miss, the weapon's string tangled with the staff and Genis yelped in pain as the orb brushed his hand as it tangled.

"Wha… what was that!" Genis snarled, worming his hand out from the weapon and throwing the worthless thing at the ground.

"You claim that I'm a heartless bastard, at least I've heard your sister say as much, but how can I be when in the past I've formed such strong bonds with others? Bonds so strong, that –as you said- the absence of the person I am attached to warps me?" Kratos' dark eyes glinted with a cruel light that made Genis' skin crawl. "When Marble died you cried, but that was it. You cried, but now instead of making their life a part of yours you drop the person like unwanted baggage."

The small wizard went pale, his skin went a snow white, and tears burned in his eyes.

"If there is someone that is heartless, it isn't me," Kratos hissed.

"Ob… obsession isn't love. And I care for Marble, I'm not heartless!"

"You cared for her, that doesn't mean you care for her now." The mercenary casually threw Genis' words right back into his teeth. "When you "let someone go", when you forget them and lock the memories away, you forsake them. And you'll do it to them, to all of them when they die, won't you?"

Pale, trembling, tears spilling down his cheeks, the wizard stared up at the man who was little more then a black blur in his vision.

"Never mock me in my grief ever again." Kratos' voice was tight, twisted by a dark rage. "Or it will be the blade in my hand you feel, not the blade which serves as my tongue."

With that the mercenary left the child to cry. Two old griefs were made new to them both by only a few careless words.

X

Had he been going home he might of whistled, maybe hummed, and if he was in a really good mood he might have done a little jig. The forest brought a twinge of nostalgia to him, of homesickness. He forgot his tracking for a moment to take a deep breath, to enjoy the smell of leaf and tree, but even as the smell was familiar the pathless forest before him told him he was not home. Still he walked on, confident that he could find his way back if he needed to…

"What the…" He walked up to a grey stone; there was a bit of wood underneath it. He knelt, pulled upon the wood and with a '_crunch_' it came free. It wasn't bark; it was a wooden plank, like part of a house, or a box, of a wag-

The rock's red eyes flared open and he staggered back. The "rock" rose, it was perched on a long steel hued neck, it looked as if plate mail had been fused with the skin, but the plate mail was the skin, and the rock was a head.

"Aaawk…"

Not having lips it snapped its jaws together, its wide red eyes flashed, then settled upon him, and what he could have easily mistaken for a mess of boulders rose up. It had thick powerful legs, claws on the end of its feet, and a hide of steel. Lloyd could only stare in horror at the veloco-dragon. Dad had told him stories of the things; Raine had told him stories about them, about how people would "ride" them. He hadn't believed in it – hadn't really believed in dragons… Kratos' story about how he'd seen a dragon underground once suddenly didn't seem so funny right now since he was looking one right in the face.

"Hehhssss…"

Fire dripped from its lipless mouth.

Swords would be useless against this thing, yet it was all he had…

He drew his blades, even as he backed up.

The bushes around him rustled and he stared at the bandits, the bandits who were with the dragon, then a steel clad man walked up to the dragon and put a hand on the monster's flank.

A dragon rider… he was looking at an honest to Gods dragon rider.

"Put down the weapon boy, ye can join the rest o' the caravan o' ye can go in FireStrykes belly, choice is yers o' course but I'd be dropin' them swords."

There was a creek, a string being pulled taunt, and Lloyd knew what that meant. Archer, somewhere behind him there was an archer. He dropped the blades, stared at the men that he could see. They all grinned; one of them came forward, rope in his hands…

Oh Gods… Lloyd closed his eyes, frustration, anger, shame, ran through him… but he couldn't do anything, he couldn't fight a dragon. As the rope bit into his wrists he stifled a cry of pain and stared at the grinning bandits. Some were human; some had points on their ears. Half elves, elves, he didn't know, he didn't ask. He staggered forward as the man who bound his hands roughly dragged him forward, and strangely he thought of something Kratos had said.

_Discretion, a well placed deception, the effects of both can sometimes outweigh the value of an honorable death._

As he heard the bandits talking of the pens he shuddered, and wondered what the Hell it all meant.

X

"_Guen, guen, guen, bue' gu"_

Genis whipped at his eyes for the fifth time, certain there were no tears on his face he walked towards the sound of Colette's singing, and he was shocked to hear Raine's voice mix with his oldest friend's. He never knew that Raine could sing!

"_Ut-pedu pede ped'a'il erend. Trut ne'nuhjorinu'illisa Nuhjney."_

Colette stopped and turned, she smiled and he smiled back. It was a weak, thin, smile, but neither of them seemed to notice.

"Hi, Genis." Colette chirped. Her pink wings fluttered happily behind her and Genis was a little surprised that she'd drawn them out. He hadn't seen them in weeks.

"Hi, Colette."

Sis gave him a long look and Genis had a suspicion that while she didn't know what Kratos had said, she knew that the man had said something that had hurt him.

"Is Lloyd back yet?"

Genis shook his head.

"Where's Kratos?" Raine's voice had a hint of steel in it.

"Off somewhere being a jerk, I don't know," Genis huffed, setting himself on the ground. "You know how he is."

Raine nodded. Yes, she knew how much of a jerk Kratos was so she didn't ask anything else. Colette's sky blue eyes went misty, and she bit her lip.

"Sweetie, is something wrong?"

"N… no…" Colette shook her head. "Nothing's wrong. I just hope he doesn't go after Lloyd by himself."

"He won't." Raine stood. "I'm getting worried as well. We should go looking for him, together."

She offered Colette a hand and the white clad Chosen took it with a smile, she extended another hand, and Genis found a shelter against Kratos' accusations when she touched his shoulder. He wasn't heartless, he'd never forget his Sister, or Colette, or anyone.

X

"Where, do you think you are going?" Raine snapped, the dark shape that was descending the hill froze, and the man turned, looked up at the teacher who was surrounded by her pupils.

"To investigate, something's wrong. And I'm not content to sit back and wait any longer."

"Next time you get that idea Mr. Aurion, I'd highly recommend you not to follow it through. We aren't walking baggage you know, we can help."

"_Seceae?"_

"Kratos, that wasn't very nice!" Colette huffed, and then she gingerly picked her way down the path, her pink wings quivering with every step.

The mercenary watched her, and then he crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head.

"Chosen One, you are aware that you could fly instead of walk down the hill, correct?"

"Really?" Colette looked at her wings. "I don't know Mr. Kratos. They're a little small I don't know if I could fly with the-"

With her wings out she tripped. She slid down part of the hill and landed at the startled mercenary's feet and looked up at the man, a helpless look on her face.

"Oww…"

"_Seceae?"_ Kratos said again, meeting Raine's eyes in some bizarre challenge that no one really understood.

Sighing Genis scrambled down the hill, got to Colette's side and helped his friend up.

"You know, you could actually help her." Genis snapped at the man.

Kratos' only response was to look down the path and begin yet again to climb down.

X

"I… can't believe this…" Lloyd stared at the man who he was sharing a cell with, and the red clad man grunted with disgust as he looked at his younger "twin". "What the Hell are you doing in here?"

"Was going to Balacruf." The man grunted, ugly bruises covered his face and his red tunic was ripped up at the back. "After you guys got that damned tablet and the town got wind of it we had to go…"

"You're still doing that?" Lloyd sputtered. "Still playing the Chosen game?"

Lych laughed, it was a sharp bitter sound.

"Like we had any choice, kid."

Lloyd didn't say anything, couldn't think of anything, and he honestly didn't care. All in the center of the clearing there were wooden cages, the poles were sunk deep into the earth. The people inside stared listlessly ahead, their hands were bound, hopelessness was written out on every face. Who they were, he didn't know them. The same dead but not dead look blurred their features.

Lych, who had stood to glare at Lloyd when he entered the cell wearily sat back down again, he looked at the world beyond the cage, his face numb of any feeling.

"Where's the rest of your friends, kid?" Lych asked after a long moment passed. "Caught?"

"No, back a ways, hiding."

"Don't get your hopes on them coming, mine tried, they're in the cells in the back. They haven't been taken by the Points, but give it time; the Points take 'em all."

"The who?"

"Points, pointy ears, steel skulls," Lych said enunciating each word slowly, like Lloyd was stupid or something.

Still Lloyd didn't understand.

"The Desian's you idiot! There's a ranch in Luin, but the head guy sends people out all through the land to kidnap people."

"Crap," Lloyd said at last.

"Crap." Lych agreed. "And the thing that pisses me off is there human, most of 'em. If I had my swords for five seconds I'd…"

Then Lloyd remembered, he sat and then reached down at his boot. The hilt of the knife Kratos had given him was still there, his fingers brushed against it and he stared at the rope bonds over his hands.

He heard Lych ranting, but he didn't hear one word, he only stared outside his cell, his mind whirling.

X

"'Hoy fellow pilgrimer!" A harsh voice called out. Colette blinked, looked at the scruffily clad man who was stepping out from the camp to greet them. "You wouldn't be a bandit by any chance?"

Raine snorted, ran a hand through her hair.

"Sir, do we look like bandits?"

"Naw, just checkin' that's all." The man grinned at them; put his hands on his hips. "This here's my people's camp, you're welcome to come in if ya like. Gotta tent ta spare and all that."

Kratos stiffened, Colette could feel him tense, the man's eyes drifted one way, and then turned to slits that locked on the bearded man with a dangerous intensity.

"Kratos, is something wrong?"

"Oya'illun-ust yet."

Colette let her eyes drift to the left; she could see a glint of silver in the green, a flash of brown.

"No-"

Kratos put his hand on her shoulder and tightened his grip till tears sprang to her eyes.

"Not a word Chosen, not a word." He hissed, his voice a breath against her ear.

"Could you help us?" Genis asked. "A friend of ours went this way and he hasn't come back."

"He's something of a firebrand," Kratos injected smoothly. "A little wild looking, red clad, carries two swords, brown haired, has brown eyes."

The man smiled, it was a kind of oily smile that made Colette's skin crawl.

"Naw sir can't say I heard of 'im. But maybe Strykes heard o' 'im. Strykes a smart man, sees a lot, I'm jest a gunt, ya know?"

"I do now…" Kratos murmured his dark eyes very, very hard. "Ms. Sage, we're desperate, we might as well ask for some sort of help."

What was Kratos doing? Everything in Colette told her to run, to get away from this man and the camp!

Raine frowned, her eyes dark with thought.

"I'd rather not leave the children…"

"We should bring them along then." It was said so lightly, so easily, but Raine jerked and then glared at the man.

Raine and Kratos' eyes met and their silent clash of wills made Colette tremble.

"We got a tent, perfect for ye and yer little ones. If yer leery of havin' 'em cap wi' me and the boys ya can take the tent out in the forest a ways and jest set up thar. Hell fires, we could jest send ol' Stryke down ta the camp once yer littles are asleep and settle matters then."

Raine's smile was thin, watery as she proclaimed the idea a marvelous one.

"Raine..." Genis hissed.

"Come along, Genis." She grabbed his hand, and keeping him as close to her as he could manage approached the camp with their eager guide.

"So-" Kratos' eyes were steel hard as he talked to the man, not that the dark haired man even noticed anything past the soothing tone. "-what business are you in, you have a multitude of tents and I strongly doubt that this is some sort of wandering pilgrimage."

"We're in the mercenary business. We're jest a clan o' relatives an' the like who like swords."

"Ah…" Kratos' tone become soft, a dangerous growl threaded under the last word he would speak for at least another hour. "Interesting..."

X

"You have a freakin' kni-" Lloyd grunted, he'd watched the guards, when they changed shifts if seemed as if it was long enough to cut his bonds and break down the door. That would be the best time to run, when they're guards were down. So he had waited, and the second that they left and went back towards the camp…

He cut the bonds and then turned to Lych.

The red clad man paled and began to stammer.

"Oh shut up, I'm not going to kill you, you dork!" Lloyd reached out and grabbed the man's arm. He sliced off the rope and then put the knife back in his boot. "If they catch us hopefully they won't guess how we got free if they don't see the knife, and I can get it out fast enough if we do run into trouble..."

"You're… saving me?" The man gapped, staring at his freed hands.

Suddenly the Kratos-y part of him surged to the top, and he grinned as he recognized it.

"No, I'm making sure that if I get hurt you'll get the message to my friends. Now shut up and leave me alone for a bit, and get away from that wall."

Lych did so, his face baffled, then a silver blue light gleamed from Lloyd's hand and the swordsman felt again that strange lightness and distance from the world. Growling Lloyd smashed into the bars, the power of his exsphere made them go flying and clatter against the trees that ringed the cell filled clearing.

"Holy shit! What the Hell are you?"

Lloyd shrugged; honestly there were some days he didn't know. Shaking his hand, trying to banish the heat in his blood and the feeling that if a strong enough wind came around he'd just float away, Lloyd grabbed the impostures arm and pulled him out of the cell.

"Come on!"

"Wha-"

Sighing Lloyd grabbed Lych's arm and dragged the imposture behind him, running away from the cells and back, back to the fields where his friends…

From above came a hiss, he shoved the man forward even as his left leg collapsed under him.

Whimpering he crumpled, stared numbly at the arrow, at the approaching archer. Gritting his teeth he reached, grasped the arrow, and with a whimper ripped it out. He could hear the archer yelling.

Lych hesitated. Lloyd growled and crawled to his feet.

"Run." He drew his knife, the archer's eyes widened in shock, and then the man coolly notched another arrow. "Damn it, run already!"

Lych took one step, then another… only when the man broke off into a full sprint did Lloyd relax. He turned, knife in hand, and heard the hiss that marked another arrow's flight, and threw himself to the right.

The tree a few yards behind him now had a new feathered decoration. Lloyd quickly pulled himself to his knees, lined up the dagger, and threw. The human bandit fell, a knife in his throat silencing his final cries.

Then the other bandits came, the appeared out of nothing almost, knives and clubs in hand. There were five of them, one of him… He clenched his fists, ready to fight them until the end.

Then behind him he felt a hot wind blow against his neck, a large shadow blotted out his own, and a steel sword pressed against his throat.

Closing his eyes, unclenching his hands, he let out a sigh.

He could punch a bandit, knock them out, but punching a dragon…

"A feissssty one." A voice behind him hissed. "Kvar likes them like that, yessss?"

There were agreeable nods, looks of terror cast at the monster and it's rider that were behind him.

"Chainsss thisss time foolssss, chainssss and tie him to the possst by Flamesss nessst."

They saluted and Lloyd's heart sank as he heard someone run off and then come back with something that clinked and rattled.

When they pulled him to his feet he cried out in pain, collapsed on his hurt leg. Rough hands then dragged him away from the cells, and he yelled, thrashed, and fought them the whole way.

X

"Just set up the tent," Kratos snapped at the protesting elf and Chosen. "Don't argue, do it, we have to make them think we believe them, and if we are attacked you two are least suited to handle the situation."

While the children worked on the tent and pretended to set up a camp Raine grimly watched the path ahead while Kratos watched the path behind. She heard it, a snapping of leaves under feet. Before she could call out Kratos was by her side, his sword in hand, his eyes locked on something coming at them that she couldn't see…

Growling he dropped into a crouch, blade weaving before him, then she saw it. A human, running towards them, a flash of red, was it Ll-.

"You!" Kratos roared, and the person skidded to a stop.

"Holy shit! Not you again!"

Snarling. Kratos charged, the man screamed and tried to bolt. Never had she seen a human run as fast as Kratos did. The red clad man was over run in mere moments then dragged back by his hair and thrown back into the clearing. She stared at the red clad man, but no recognition came to her. Genis and Colette left the tent to stare at the battered human and the mercenary (who had put a sword to the whimpering man's throat).

It was Genis who remembered the name.

"You're Lych from Asgard!"

"One of the impostures. This one is the man who wounded Lloyd in Palma Costa." Kratos snarled, and Raine shivered, if she left the man alone with this… imposture she had little doubt that Kratos would kill him in cold blood.

"Kratos, he's hurt, we have to heal him!" Colette cried out.

"Like Hell this bastard will be healed. He owes me a debt…"

Lych whimpered, and then as Colette and Genis argued with Kratos, the man's dark eyes grew crafty.

"Not unless you want that kid of yours dead, old man."

All talk ceased, Kratos' eyes burned into the imposture.

"Talk."

"There are slave traders that a way, I'd point but you'd skin me if I twitch. I'll take you to where he is, you don't kill me, we clear?"

Kratos seemed to swell with rage, fire licked along the edge of his blade and the imposture swallowed, hard. He wasn't the only one, Genis cringed behind her and Colette took a step back from the mercenary.

"Hell, you pay me and I might even tell you what kinda odds you're lookin' at." The imposture grinned up at the Kratos.

The mercenary turned his blade around in his hand. His expression devoid of any emotion he calmly thrust. Lych screamed, arched as the smoldering blade smashed into his leg.

"Oh goddess goddessgoddessgoddess!" Lych screamed, his body spasming as a lighting spell ran down the Kratos' blade and into him.

"Kratos, stop!" Colette screamed, wrapping her hands around the mercenary's arm, trying futilely to pull the blade out. "You're hurting him! Stop it, please!"

"Kratos, stop!" Genis shrieked.

Face pale, hands shaking, Raine pulled Genis to her, held him close and looked at the mercenary.

"Kratos." Her voice was little more than a sick whisper. "Your son would expect better of you then this."

Sense returned to those black eyes. Shuddering, the mercenary pulled the blade out of Lych's leg, the spells of fire and lightning faded away.

"Heal him," Kratos spat, sheathing his blade even as he walked away from the clearing. His face cool, calm as always, save for his eyes, where the shadows within seemed to writhe. He walked away, like nothing had ever happened.

Only Raine saw the man's shoulders shake; only she saw -just for one second- the tears that fell down from the man's eyes.


	26. Rescue

_The song "Meaning of Birth" by Motoo Fujiwara and "Crimson Pride" by Motoi Sakuraba really influenced this chapter. Sorry Shards updates have been rare, but the characters in "Song of the Seagulls" have been kind of hogging my attention. I decided to get off my lazy rear and just save Lloyd before the more rabid reviewers spontaneously combust or something. As for Kratos' behavior, those who've read "Double Edged Sword" shouldn't be too surprised as I show the darker side of Kratos' personality in some of the middle and later chapters. To those who haven't read it, it's not some of my best (I "find" my current writing style around chapter ten) stylistically speaking, but it has one of my best stories overall. It's one of those few pieces that I'm fully satisfied with and I'd highly recommend reading it before I get the next few chapters up. Kvar's coming closer, but you're not going to fully understand the significance of what happens in the Kvar chapters, and when they go to Luin, unless you've read "Double Edged". BTW GameCubeGilr1 gave me a positively evil idea, hopefully she'll like it. Rescuing Lloyd, and some stuff on the fake Chosen group that may surprise. Dialogue and action heavy chapter, it all cools/winds down at the end of the segment. Next chapter, the wind temple… malosium(sp) thingie, (don't worry I'll have the spelling right when it comes up)! _

Shards chapter 26

Rescue

He returned, less then half an hour later from his scouting Kratos returned, his face grim.

"They aren't many, but they have traps."

He knelt and calling a starlet of flame to form on the tip of his blade he drew a roughly shaped oval on the ground with the fire. Green grass withered, turned black, and ignoring the thin stream of smoke the Mercenary talked as he drew. Genis watched the spell work with open admiration, he was good at making things explode and causing huge things to happen with his spells, but simple things –like starting a fire or making something small burn while making sure nothing else did- were beyond him. He could sense Kratos' will wrapped around the star of flame, could feel the mercenary leashing the flames and contained them, but the "how" of it was lost on him. Raine set her hand on his shoulder, and he smiled, turned to face her, to let her know without saying a thing that everything was alright. She nodded, her understanding, and then looked on with interest as the black clad man lectured about the placement of the various traps he'd seen.

Colette sat at Kratos' feet, watching the drawing with an open fascination; her hands – which had been hurt when she'd grabbed at Kratos' sword to keep the man from killing the imposture Lych- were recently healed by Raine. As Kratos explained and pointed out the traps –most of them just sounded like oversized rabbit snares meant to catch people- Genis had to wonder how the heck Colette could just sit right there by the man who'd just hurt her like nothing was wrong.

But then maybe he should ask himself that, too, after all Lych was sitting only a few inches away from him, and Lych had almost killed Lloyd.

Frowning the red clad imposture meekly pointed to the area behind the cells that he hadn't been able to see and drew a small square there with one finger.

"I saw a few Points with 'em, not all of 'em is human, so there might be some magicin' types with them. An' ya didn't see the Rider, I'm guessin'. Its den's right about here…"

"Rider?" Kratos growled.

"Dragon Rider." Lych shook his head. "Would'a been the two of us making a clean get away if that damned thing hadn't snooked behind your kid, old timer."

Colette laughed. "Mr. Lych, Kratos isn't Lloyd's father, Dirk is."

"Huh." Lych rubbed at the stubble that was on his chin, the bruises along his face and small wounds over his body had been healed. He was a slender man, covered in pale scars that his tattered red tunic and brown pants did little to hide. Dark eyes glinted with doubt, but he didn't question Colette's statement. "Anyways, he fought like Hell. Just smashed through the bars like they were nothin' and knifed one of the Points, he'd of freed everyone on his own if not for the damned Rider."

"A Dragon Rider…" Kratos frowned, fell silent, and the small star on his blade flared up once then faded away leaving only black threads of smoke to waft around Kratos' blade. "That adds a whole new dimension to the issue."

"Knifed a point?" Colette murmured.

Hearing keen from years of listening to rumor and opportunity, Lych heard the words and looked to the blonde haired child as he explained. "Threw his knife, got the Pointy Ears right in the throat before they took him back."

Genis winced at the human's words and Colette bit her lip.

In response Raine gently gripped her brother's shoulder, offered what comfort she could.

"I think we need to understand each other… _boy_." Kratos hissed, drawing his blade. "My job is to protect the Chosen and her companions, and if I dub anything you say or doas dangerous to her physical or mental well being I _will_ finish what I started."

Pale, shaking, Lych nodded, his eyes locked on the threatening blade rather than the mercenary's ice shrouded eyes. Genis couldn't blame the man; he didn't have the courage to look intoKratos' dead, intense, visage either.

"I have some notes on Dragon Riders, the history of the order..." Raine fumbled through her packs and pulled out a large ream of papers. At the sight Kratos growled, looked at is he was going to just storm off and attack the bandit's camp on his own. "Mr. Aruion, you may think you know everything, but you don't. And I think spending a few moments doing some research and having _some_ idea what to expect is exponentially better then just running in and hoping for the best." Raine flipped through a few pages, and then shot the mercenary a nasty look from over edge of the book. "There are times when I wonder if being around Lloyd isn't a strain on your sanity, Mr. Aurion, and know that if I find you in danger of physically of mentally hurting the children, _you_ will be the one seriously hurt and driven off."

"I believe we've had this discussion before," Kratos hissed.

"I'm just going out of my way to remind you." Raine's violet eyes flicked to Colette then to Lych. "Just in case you feel your temper starting to run short, putting the facts before you might persuade you to actually control your homicidal impulses instead of act on them."

Raine turned another page and both adults fell into a tense, angry silence..

Colette squirmed, looked uncomfortable; the imposture just turned to look from one adult to the other, and then looked at Genis who was probably the only "safe" person to talk to at the moment.

"No 'fence, kid, but this Chosen's group is really screwed up."

"Well… what do you know, you stupid imposture!"

"That this group's screwed up, never said I knew nothin' else. So, you gunna give me a sword or am I just gunna fight dragons and crap with my fists?"

Kratos' dark eyes glittered with what Genis hoped –or rather prayed- was a bit of humor.

"My vote goes with fists."

"Hardy har har… You're a real laugh, Merc. I'm goin', _deal_ with it. Now, you got a sword or not?"

"I have no spare weapons that I would lend out to _you_."

"We can't _not_ give him a weapon, Kratos, if there is a dragon…" Colette turned, looked up into Kratos' dark eyes. "We… maybe he hurt Lloyd, maybe he hurt other people, but Martel promises us that there is redemption, that there always is hope for the sinner."

Kratos' lips curled back into a silent snarl, Genis shivered, drew near to his sister. Raine looked up from her research, the hand not holding the book closed over her staff.

"For some sins, there is no redemption --some sins are too dark."

"There's no such thing as too much dark. There is dark, there is light, and all it takes is one candle to make the dark go away." Colette said firmly, and then she smiled. "Or one sword."

"If he gets _anything_ from me it will be a knife, I won't let him take my sword."

"That's the way!" Colette chirped, surprising them all by giving the mercenary a hug. "Now-" She turned while still having her arms around the stiff and pale mercenary's shoulders. "-what do you say when someone gives you something, Mr. Imposture?"

"Ummm…" Lych blinked. "Thanks?"

Colette happily sat at Kratos' side and asked Lych what the cells were made out of. When Lych answered she asked Kratos if fire spells would be bad to use. When Kratos answered that he would need to have a better idea of how they were built and how many were occupied she asked Lych about that. Somewhere in the question and answer hunt Colette fell silent, Kratos and Lych were actually talking to each other, asking questions on tactics, weapons, and the enemy.

"I think…. the world just ended." Genis whispered to his sister.

Raine's lips curled, she hid the smile with her notes and set the staff down.

"Only Colette could pull off such a feat."

"Do you think," he hissed, "that they know?"

Raine shook her head, and Genis sat by her, remaining quiet while she read, and tried not to think about what poor Lloyd must be going through.

X

Genis didn't know the half of it.

"Hehhsss..."

"Nice Dragon…"

Fire licked around the things teeth and came out as the thing exhaled. Yalping Lloyd threw himself against thepole, twisting as the flames missed him by inches. Red faced, panting, sweating, Lloyd was slowly being cooked alive, while the bandits all sat around the pole and pointed and laughed. So far he hadn't been hit, but it was only a matter of time, and he was so tired that dodging was getting harder and harder.

Bored, because the dragon was waiting a little to stoke up its fire and try to cook him again, one of the bandits picked up a rock and threw it. Lloyd winced at the hit, but didn't do anything else save make a pained noise and think.

_What in Efreet's Fiery Hell is taking them so damn long!_

Then all coherent thought left him, only panic as the blunted snout twisted and lined up with him, tell tale smoke curling from the nostrils…

_Oh Luna… not again_!

The jaws opened and he saw the fire licking amongst the teeth. He cursed the bandits who had bound his hands together with chains and then wrapped the chain around the top of the pole so tightly that both his arms were forced up, over his head. Kicking off the pole, he twisted himself so that he swung around it and the fire missed him yet again. The chain ran over his already raw wrists even as his swinging made his arms jerk painfully.

X

"Ms. Sage." Kratos' voice was a soft lethal whisper. "We have waited a whole fifteen minutes. Enough is enough, now either set the damned book aside or stay here and read while the children and I go off and fight."

"I've got it!" Raine crowed, and then she looked up, and stared at the mercenary. She was startled to find that he was so close to her yet she hadn't noticed. "Oh… why are you standing in my sunlight?"

Muttering a string of words in Angelic, Kratos turned on his heel and stormed off.

"Got what? I'm not seein' anythin'…" The imposture scratched at the back of his head.

"An idea, the Professor only says that when she gets an idea," Colette told the man.

"It's cold blooded."

Lych and Colette looked at each other, both equally baffled, but it was Genis who figured it out first.

"If I cast an ice spell, do you think it will fall asleep?"

"Perhaps. It's a hope, and it certainly is safer than just whacking at it with a sword. Even if the creature doesn't fall asleep, the cold temperature causes the scales of the _veloco flarious draco_, or rather the veloco-dragon, to stretch. The expansion of the scales will slow the creature down for a time and will weaken the scales making mundane attacks all the more potent." Smirking Raine looked around the clearing. "What do you have to say about tha- Where's Kratos?"

"He said some bad words then went that way." Colette pointed to the bandit's camp.

"That… idiot!" Genis shot to his feet muttering a few words that were more elaborate and detailed of the man's flaws under his breath. He couldn't believe it If Kratos was going to try by himself then he was acting even _more_ reckless than Lloyd and him had when they attacked the Desian Ranch in Iselia. "He's going to attack them by himself!"

Raine stuffed the book in her packs then snatched up her staff and a few gels.

"Leave your packs; if there are any bandits back at the fake camp then they'll be expecting us to camp here with the tents, hopefully our ruse will make them think that we still believe them to be mere travelers."

Raine tried to remember what Kratos had said, she'd only understood bits and pieces of the battle plan that he had hammered out with Lych.

"We keep the prisoners in their cells until after we've driven off the bandits," Raine ordered, ignoring Colette and Genis' protests. "They'll be panicked, confused, and sick; they can't defend themselves."

"Most of 'em are whipped, or toasted by the Dragon," Lych said grimly. "No one save maybe my mates can fight any, and we'd need our weapons."

"Can they work with staves?"

The Professor and Imposture turned to see Kratos, long lengths of wood in his hand, the edges were jagged, as if torn or ripped off of something larger.

"Bars, from a cell that appears to have taken some serious damage." There was something faint, barely discernable in Kratos' icy voice.

"Do they have a choice?" Lych grunted.

"Stay or fight." Kratos snapped, and then he looked at Raine. "The guards seemed to have gathered near the dragon's den, I could faintly hear cheers and cries of pain, they're torturing someone."

"A toastin' run. Tie someone up and let the dragon cook 'em for kicks," Lych grunted. "They cook the useless ones."

"Or the ones that royally pissed them off?" Kratos murmured, and though still and calm something in his dark eyes burned.

"By breaking a cell and making someone get away…" Genis added in a sick voice.

"Oh Goddess…" Colette went pale.

"Kratos and I are capable of handling injuries, all of you, stay near one of us," Raine ordered; even as they approached the camp. It was more for Lych's benefit then anyone else's.

"Stay away from the northen side of the camp, the traps are there. Guard posts have been put in the trees on the east and west sides of the camp, they're unmanned but have catches of cross bows and bolts."

"Not for long." A faint red aura enveloped the young wizard's hands and Kratos let out a dark laugh at the determination written all over the child's face.

"The prisoners are in the center, they all need healing desperately, they have all been tortured…"

Raine nodded, she would go there first.

"I'll heal who I can, Colette can go with me, she can help."

Kratos growled his eyes distant as he wrestled with himself. Raine knew something of the battle he was fighting. The Dragon's Den lay on the past the cells, past the mess of traps, he wanted to go there, to free Lloyd…

"Hey, what about me?" Lych whined.

"You,-" Kratos hissed. "-will be carrying _these_."

Lych stared at the staves that the mercenary had just shoved into his hands.

"I'm not some freakin' delivery b-"

The sword Kratos drew and pressed to Lych's throat persuaded him that his task wasn't all that bad. Satisfied the lesson had sunk in, the mercenary sheathed his blade.

"If my client dies," Kratos hissed, "if she becomes hurt, and it is either by your action or inaction I will make Hell seem merciful compared to what I do to you."

Swallowing Lych meekly nodded, his eyes wide, all his old fear returning to him in a heartbeat.

"Smart man," Raine murmured as she passed the imposture.

Lych fell in step behind her, his face pale. "Is he… _always_ this nasty?"

Raine grunted, and that seemed more then answer enough.

X

Sparks leapt from his fingers, between his fingers, a small sheet of flame poured down from the tips of his fingers to gather and pool in his palms. He chanted, called on Efreet to offer vessels suiting his rage. And in that the God responded, a red haze tinged the world around him the color of hot fresh spilled blood, and the fire in his hands flared, rose higher and higher. Growling, he clenched his fingers, damped the flames, then commanded them to fly from his hands and strike his foes. Three orbs of fire were born in front of his red streaked vision, lifting his hands he guided them, and like meteors they flew, with deadly precision, igniting the trees that held the last of the archer stations. Satisfied he murmured a quiet phrase in Angelic, and then damped the flames in his hands with a thought.

The silver haired child looked up at him, his eyes bright, inquisitive. There was a hint of orange around the boy's lips, and he pulled a lock of silver hair out from his eyes to better look at the mercenary. He opened his mouth to ask, but the dark intense look on Kratos' face told Genis it was best not to ask.

Lifting a hand he called upon the water to rise, for Martel to guild the waters to damp the violent flames before the forest burnt down around their ears. But even as he chanted, he heard Kratos' strange words, so soft spoken, almost like a prayer.

"_Gracu'ust, Efreet. Mereth-criy us Spire'Nujey erell-trut jar'au."_

He wondered who Kratos was praying to, then ignored that and all frivolous thoughts and focused on damping the fires.

X

The prisoners gapped as an angel appeared before them. Her wings of softest pink glowed with a holy light, even as her soft voice brought them calm. A woman garbed in a burnt orange hued coat walked amongst them, in her hands she held the colors of spring, vibrant, living green that flowed from her fingers and took away their pain.

"You must stay inside. We'll free you when they're gone." Promised the angel.

Devout, with that promise and that hope in their hearts they nodded and waited with little complaint.

X

"I'll be damned, she is an angel!" Lych sputtered, watching as the blonde girl with those glowing wings walked amongst the prisoners and talked to them. He didn't catch everything, as it was he was looking among the cells for…

"Big Brother!"

"Ceron!"

Lych clasped the hand that reached through the bars. A warm smile found its way on his face scared face for the first time in days.

"Don't worry." He loosed his brother's hand, leaned the staves against the side of the cage. "I'll get ya out in a jif'"

Drawing the knife that the Merc had let him borrow Lych looked at the lock. Huh, simple enough lock. He gritted his teeth, unable to believe that people this stupid could capture him and his group, but what really smarted more then anything else was that the kid who he wanted to beat to a damned pulp was the one he owed his life to. A few jingles of the lock later he pulled off the annoying thing and swung the door open. Ignoring the staves, ignoring anything else but the fact his Big Brother was back, Ceron swept out of the cell and swept him up in a bear hug. Lych felt bones almost snap in that embrace.

"Yer back!"

"Hell right!" Lych croaked, mentally marveling at the new constellations that were flashing across his eyes. "Come on Oaf, gotta put me down, lots ta do…"

Grinning from ear to ear Ceron did so, and then looked around, his dark eyes that were wide and utterly guileless. For a second Lych wondered if letting Ceron out had been a mistake… But then he thought of the wails, the pathetic cries that would have come had he walked by with only a promise that he was coming back.

"Pick those up, we got lots ta do."

Ceron obeyed, fast and eager now that his world was back to normal.

"Now let's go find the girls and kick some bandit ass."

X

"Kreee!"

Looking up from her healing Raine paled, the monster's cry did not sound anything like that which the book described. She drew her staff and called Colette to her. Her attention was split; she couldn't even tell if the girl had heard, as her grip on the physical world was diminished due to the strain of her spell trance. She had to be aware, had to be coherent, but to be so she left her with a bitter choice that was in truth no choice. She canceled the healing spell, leaving the poor battered child in his cage to whimper in pain from a half healed gash in his shoulder.

"Fire, someone set the damned watch towers aflame and then damped 'em!" A harsh voice roared from the other side of the clearing.

For some reason Kratos had been unable to dispatch man before the bandit had called out for all to hear him. Why though, he had told her he would deal with any who came in that direction, why hadn't he done something? They both knew how dangerous it would be if any of the bandits saw the tendrils of smoke that had appeared and disappeared by the watch towers. Even the most dumb would know that a wizard was out there, and it would put them on their guard... When their plan hinged on stealth, on surprise, they had that no longer.

"Goddess… that man wants us to fight; if I didn't know him better he wants a blood bath." Raine hissed to herself.

"Professor!"

Raine jerked herself from her thoughts, then turned to face where Colette was pointing.

"My goddess…"

Blazing down the path between the cells was the veloco-dragon, its tail thrashing wildly; it carelessly slapped its tail against the cells while it charged them. And those people inside, she heard the cries of pain as the fragments of bars flew in and probably slashed and impaled the captives locked inside.

Drawing her throwing rings, Colette charged the creature. Her brilliant pink wings were flapping, throwing her forward so that each step was more of a leap.

"Colette!"

For once, unthinking, she charged after her pupil, into the path of the dragon.

X

"No!" Genis wrapped his small hands around Kratos' sword hilt, bodily putting himself in the way so that the man could not draw his weapon unless he wanted to slice Genis in half to get his weapon. "You can't kill him, he's a half elf."

"He's the enemy!" Kratos snarled. Trying and failing to shake the child off. "For the love of Aska!" The mercenary rasped, his free hand clenching into a fist even as he fought for his blade. "He'll call out the alarm, will you let your sister and your friends die for some damned ra-!"

The bandit cried out what he'd discovered, the dragon shrieked. Kratos, with a growl, back handed the child. Shocked that he'd been hit, Genis stared at the man, watched in horror as the mercenary drew his sword. Never having been hit by anyone but his sister -and that happened only when he was bad, and she never hit him hard- and Ivan -a bully who knew not to hit that hard because Lloyd would beat the mayor's son up if Genis was really hurt-, Genis looked up at the man with smarting eyes, blurring vision.

"It must be nice, living in a world that's black and white, where all the answers are locked away in books." Kratos spat, brushing past him. "Never get in my way again, boy, or I'll use my knife, not my fist."

"No…" Genis scrambled to his feet, a flickure of fire around his fingers. "He's not a desian, I can't let you hurt him!"

Kratos turned, looked to the young wizard, his black eyes unreadable and all but lost in the locks of auburn that spilled over his face. He then turned back to the bandit; the man hadn't heard or seen them yet. The man was going off in the wrong direction, still hollering up a storm.

"Not all desian's wear black and adorn themselves with steel helmets, Genis." Kratos hissed. "Now either get out of my way or die where you stand."

"Not all desian's are half elves either." Genis growled, clenching his small hands to better grab and throw the mana around him. The wind seemed strongest, he'd use it to give a kick to his fire spells, and then he'd rely on just the wind if he had too…

Kratos actually laughed, though it was more of a harsh bark like noise than a laugh.

"You will sacrifice your sister, your friend, the chosen, and this world's sole hope… for what, the fact a man who makes his living preying off the weak has pointed ears?"

Sputtering, anger running him through him hotter then any fire mana he almost said something cutting when it struck him. How quiet it was, how the bandit had fallen silent…

"Kratos, behind…"

Kratos was already turning, he staggered back. His steel shield made a sickening crack noise and the man croaking out in pain, actually fell back. Smirking, the bandit lined his crossbow with the downed man's heart and put in another bolt.

"Good work kid." The man chuckled. "Damn smooth work keeping the animal's guard down for me."

Looking into the drooling, grinning face, he saw Magnius. Face smeared with blood, animal bone in hand, calmly watching his men being slaughtered. The man had waited until the killing was over before he struck out to kill the intruders, or rather that had been the man's plan.

_Not all desian's wear black_…

Drawing his kendama, Genis leapt in front of the downed mercenary, muttered a quick mantra, and blocked the arrow meant for Kratos with a magic shield of palest azure. Now the half elf wasn't so smug, now he looked angry.

"Get out of the way kid."

Genis was shaking, his knees literally knocking together as he looked into those blue eyes not too different from his own. He saw the pointed ears, the pale face and dull grey locks, all marks of the degenerate half elf specie. He looked into the face of what he might be when he was older, looked into those hate filled eyes.

"N..no…"

X

"Goddess, shed a fragment of your glory of on us… Photon!"

Screaming the dragon reared back, tears streaming down its eyes. The jaws that had nearly descended to snap Colette's head from her shoulders were now occupied with screaming in pain. The beast staggered back, Colette lashed out with her throwing rings, treating the fragile weapons like giant razors and just flailed at the monster. Goddess, Colette should run, she shouldn't put herself in danger like this! Turning on her heel the half angel did a quick spin, her chircuns(sp?) made the childish move dangerous, any level with Colette's hands would have been ripped to shreds.

With a croak of pain the land bound dragon hopped back, a nasty line of crimson running along its flank.

Smoke wafted from the monster's nostrils, it opened its mouth wide and let out an orb of fire. Raine leapt ahead, called forth her protective green shell with a thought then banished the arcane shield with a gesture when the fires were gone.

"Colette-" Raine did not look away from the creature who was staring at them both in shock. "-are you alright?"

"I'm fi- Professor look out!"

Seeing that fire wasn't going to work, the canny creature spun on one paw and lashed out with the other. Raine tried to call up the shield again, even as she lifted her staff in a meager defense. Arms clasped around her chest, wings of softest pink wrapped around her as if to shield her from the incoming talons. Then the world around her burst into soft golden light, and the air was filled with pink feathers, they swirled about her, a storm that gathered, thickened, and became a wall between them and the talons.

Ludicrous to think that mere feathers could hold off talons, but they did, with a ting like steal hitting steel the creature's foot smashed against the wall. The feathers sank to the earth soundlessly, and reveled to them that the creature was pin wheeling it's comically short fore paws and swaying as it found the balance on its wounded leg wanting…

Grimly Raine shifted her grip on her staff, held it much like she has seen Kratos hold a blade. Both hands a few inches above the base, the thicker, heavier portion of the staff as far away from her hands as she could manage, she tightened her grip and advanced. She heard Colette chanting, recognized the spell and delivered a sharp up sweeping blow to the creatures lower jaw. The long neck whipped back, and the pink feathers arched over Colette, over Raine's head, and sank into the creature's softer throat scales.

Making a raspy croak the monster's eyes glazed, then it fell on its side, smashing into one of the –thank Martel- empty cells and breaking the wooden cage to little more then tinder.

Looking at the destruction, eyes wide in shock, Colette shook in horror as what she'd just help do sank in.

"Shh…" Raine took one of the girl's hands in her own. "It's alright, it's over now." She turned then embraced the shocked girl, turning her so that she didn't have to face the dead monster.

The sounds of battle from the cells nearby made her words a lie though.

X

"Step down little boy." The archer hissed; his patience, much like his supply of arrows, was almost spent. "Your pretty little bubble might block arrows but I'll use my knife next and you can't hold up against that forever…"

Genis didn't even have time to beg the man to put up his bow again, Kratos rasped a few words and screaming winds came out of nothingness and smashed into the bandit. The localized typhoon literally lifted the man off the ground and pounded into him like unseen fists and knives. Bloody gashes and bruises appeared all over the man, and then with a snarled "_Auust_!" the last gust of wind threw the bandit aside like a child's toy.

The bandit did not moan, did not stir, the grass around him was fast turning red…

Kratos grunted, got to his feet and then carefully worked off his shield and pulled the cross bow bolt out of his arm.

"Go back to the camp little boy. You're no use to me, or anyone else, if you don't know why you fight."

"I know why I'm fighting!" Genis flared.

"Really?" Kratos set a glowing hand over his wounded arm. "Then why did you hesitate, why _do_ you hesitate?"

"I… I don't want anyone to die!" Genis whipped at his eyes. "I don't want anyone to get hurt!"

Kratos' eyes grew distant, then they sharpened, like twin black swords they pierced into him, read the truth of his statement, then the man's lips curled into a sad smile.

"The world would be a better place if there was no need for death or pain, but it is not, and until you can decide what you will kill for, and what you will die for, then you need to go back to camp. Leave the killing to those who know why they do what they do."

And with that he turned, ran to the cells where the sound of fighting could still be heard.

"I… I'm not going to sit back like some… coward…" Genis gritted his teeth, wanted to go forward. But his legs were knocking together, he was scared, could barely stand much less move. "Lloyd… needs me… Sis… Colette…"

And with those words he managed to find the courage to go forward, though what he could have done… he wasn't too sure, but it was better then doing nothing at all.

X

Faith grinned, spun her staff around in her hands with an expert air and Lych chuckled at the sight. For a baker's daughter she was tough, she'd smacked those Points back and blocked swords for a while. Little wonder his girl Aryll took a likin' to her.

Hell after this he'd take a likin' to the girl, still she wasn't as good to the eyes as _his_ girl…

Aryll was behind them, rummaging through the loot pile, and she came back from the mess of gald, cloth, fine foods, wines, and weapons with two very special weapons in hand.

"That's m' girl!" Lych grinned, and caught the thrown twin blades.

Aryll was already going back to her mad hunt, looking for the whip that belonged to Faith. Besides her, pawing through the pile of gald and the like, Ceron was looking too. His search was a bit more chaotic, but he was doing alright…

"Big Bro, I found a whip!"

"Throw it to Faith!" He barked, and then drew his blades. The three bandits paled at him as he offered his most vicious grin to them. "You have made your asses mine to kick, boys."

There was a loud "crack" and he spared a glance at the orange clad woman covering his side.

"'Less you boys wanna go over there and take what ya gave us in double…"

"Either way." Aryll snapped, coming up behind him, her twin knives resting in hand. "We'll make sure that Kvar fella of yours hears you scream."

X

Kratos snarled; lifted a hand that glowed with fire. Flames leapt around his fingers and he leveled his hand at the bandit that had tried to take him from behind. The first fireball neatly melted the face off, the other two smashed into the downed man's gut and set the carrion ablaze.

"_Mereth-criy us Spire'Nujey erell-trut jar'au, mere-"_

"Wh.. what are… you trying to do? St... start a forest fire?"

Kratos blinked, looked over his shoulder to seethe small silver haired boy wave a hand and cast a water spell to damp the flames. Unperturbed by the intense stare Genis continued.

"You… need someone with you… who c… cares that your state of fluctuating state of sanity might torch innocent forests and animals and the like. Since Lloyd isn't here… I'm going to have to suffice... until he comes back. Then I'm… st… staying really far away from you! Because you're crazy and I don't want to catch it!"

Kratos raised an eyebrow, said nothing for a long long moment.

"Hurry up boy, if you're coming along you need to keep pace."

X

They found no resistance, none of the groups, as they joined up in the cells. Colette ran from cell to cell looking for Lloyd, Genis right behind her burning away locks and helping the people who were hurt clamber out of the cages and into the sunlight.

"He's not here!" Colette sobbed. "Where is he?"

Kratos looked upon the suffering of those around him, untouched, uncaring, his mind only on one thing. His search had been as desperate as Colette's, and hearing the Chosen's words he let out a low growl and spun on one of the nearest prisoners.

"A boy, red clad, brown hair, where did they take him?"

The old man muttered something, twitched, and Raine left the patient whose wounds she was binding to Colette's care and advanced on the mercenary.

"Advanced dehydration, starvation, he's in no state to even know his name much less tell you that."

Snarling Kratos dropped the man to the ground, his dark eyes smoldering in frustration.

"We'll take over here."

Kratos whirled, stared at the group of impostures. In that one moment he and Raine shared the exact same distrust, their hands drifted to their weapons and Lych grinned at them. Lych grinned even as Kratos let out a bestial snarl, willing to vent his frustration on the man who had lead to the recapture and pain of Lloyd.

"Yeah, I hate you, you hate me. We'll settle our score later old man. You owe me." Lych rubbed his scared face. "You owe me for _this_; your freak dog, and your runt, you all owe me one hell of a debt. But I'm putting it off collecting… for _now_. You helped me save my mates; I help you save your son. Don't make us even, not by a long shot." Lych's dark eyes burned as fiercely as Kratos'. "Not by a long shot."

Kratos nodded. "Any time, any place, Lych, name it, and I'll come to clear that debt."

"I will. Someday we'll have a chat, no guards or nothin' to interrupt us. One of them's missin', that Rider guy. Find him, find your kid, best bet I can make. After all, he was over there getting' toasted, my bet is they weren't done wi' 'im yet, and left 'im here to take us on."

Kratos took the knowledge mutely then turned on his heel to abandon the wounded.

"Stay here." Kratos barked. "Make sure they don't steal anything else from the loot if nothing else."

The impostures winced, looked a bit guilty at that.

"Kratos, someone should…" Colette stood, looked ready to leave the man she had been tending to come along.

"Just stay here." He snarled. "I'll deal with it on my own. You'll just get in the way."

Raine considered her state, she was tired, and the wounded needed her. Genis looked like he was on his last legs, and Colette was all but spent. There was little they could do now, very little. Shaking her head, she had to wonder at the man's energy, he wasn't tired, not in the slightest…

Such stamina, even an exsphere could not account for all of that, certainly hers didn't do much for her save give her healing spells a slight boost.

Shaking her head, wondering, Raine looked at the hurt, the tortured, the wounded, and then to her pupil and brother.

"Genis, get a fire going, Colette, go back to the camp and bring back our packs. There are too many, we'll need to start treating them with more mundane medicines. Lych, we'll need firewood, you in white, go with Colette and help her with the packs, and you two, find something useful to do."

The large one, with dark wide eyes stared at her with a frightening lack of comprehension.

"Useful?"

"Ceron, get your rear over here and help me out!" Lych bellowed. "Aryll, do what the witch says, Faith take down one of those bandit tents and make bandages!"

"They need to be sanitized…" Raine snapped.

Lych shrugged, jerked his thumb to the woman in orange named Faith. "Talk ta her 'bout it, not me."

X

Fire had blackened the trees, turned the grass and leaves to ash on this side of the clearing. He stared at the crude cave that had been constructed, looked upon the mess of stones dragged from the nearby mountains. Nothing was inside, that he was certain. Secure that it was safe he allowed himself to now look at the stake that had been pounded in front of the man-made cavern. It was wood, little more then a skinned and ash covered tree, chains had been looped around it. Arms raised above his head by the steel bondage, head bowed, Lloyd let out a soft moan of pain. Battered, beaten, burns were so plentiful that it looked from the distance as if his arms and hands were covered in red fabric.

At the sight of such pain, such damage, safety be damned, he raced across the clearing, was at the young man's side in a heartbeat.

"_Lloyden_…" Kratos moved to reach out, but stopped himself in fear of causing more pain. "_Mer Oriss_… I'm here… everything is going to be alright…" Kratos murmured, greatly daring he tilted the boy's chin up and looked into that pain scrunched face. Even in sleep Lloyd did not lose his pain.

Taking a step back he lifted his blade, silver arched through the air, smashed into the chains, broke them in one pass. He caught Lloyd before the swordsman could fall, eased the young man onto the ground. He laid the tortured swordsman's head in his lap, ran a hand through the chestnut hued locks, and even as he smoothed down the hair he was in the young man's mind, nearly drowning in the agony that screamed in Lloyd's unconscious mind.

What hell, living must be when the poor boy was awake…

"_Aska, Selunea… Undi derris garcuin askan_…"

Blue runes whispered around his ankles, water seeped from them like blood from a wound, sloshed against the invisible yet impenetrable barrier of his will.

"_Bue' m'er_…"

And at his command the silver blue waters came, and enveloped them both.

X

Lych tossed another piece of wood on the fire, watched the sparks spiral up, watched them stain the air a bloody red, and then settled down. He was wearing one of his red tunics, one of his "Lloyd" costumes, which had been retrieved from the bandits. Nice of them to give them _their_ stuff back, he sneered as he sat down. He stared into the flames while the chatter of the real Chosen's group flittered around him.

"We just have to… trust him, if he isn't back with Lloyd by morning I'll go look for him." The silver haired woman's voice promised.

Way you say _trust,_ gal, you must hate that word. Lych thought to himself, but he wisely kept his mouth shut. Piss these people off and they might kill him, his brother, his girl… having everything to lose and nothing to gain he kept his trap shut.

It was assurance enough to the little kid and blonde girl, they took it all bait, line, and sinker. Went to bed after wishing everyone good night, even him! Huh, that blonde one had to be a dunce to wish him good luck. He didn't respond, just stared blankly ahead, he was vaguely aware of the elf sitting by him. What'd the witch want… oh yeah, they were sharing watch, that was right…

"Not much we can do, we can save ourselves, but them." Lych waved a gauntleted hand to encompass the mess of freed captives scattered around them, some wrapped in blankets… a few with blankets drapped over them. "They're just screwed over if anything comes at us."

"I know, but it's wrong not to at least make the motions, and who knows, we might be able to act fast enough to ward off a monster before anyone gets hurt." The silver haired woman sighed. "It's not logical, but some level of optimism should be maintained in dire situations."

"Screwed up and stupid… you guys are a wonder." Lych grumbled, shaking his head.

"_What_ was that?"

"You're screwed, or rather world's screwed." Lych explained with a shrug. "You're travelin' with a crazed Merc, the world's Chosen's a dunce, that shrimps a total wuss, that kid in red -what-iz name?- Ah… Lloyd, he's stupid _and_ a bad swordsman. You're screwed."

Raine's eye twitched, then her rage cooled, turned from fiery to icy in a heartbeat.

"I could argue against those statements, but I'll merely describe them as "fallacious comments based upon the observations of an inadequate intellectual" and leave it at that."

Wondering if he'd been insulted, Lych decided to act cool and calm and pretend that he knew what the pointy eared which just said.

"Um… yeah, I'll say that's true and all… but really, you guys are pretty stupid."

Raine bit down on her cheek to keep from laughing. Then, after a few moments managed a slightly choked "How so?".

"Well… ya don't take advantage of it! You got all the damned power in the world right there!" Lych pointed to Colette. "Just tack her name on it, say some holy junk, do a few "angelic" doodles on a paper and whole treasuries could be spilled out at your feet."

Raine's face twisted into a scowl. "Mr. Lych, not everything in the world is about money, it's not the sole force in the world. There are other things…"

"If I believed that… why the Hell did I help you? Why the Hell I tell that Merc where his kid was? Why'd I put my _life_ on the line to save my mates, eh? I may be stupid nex' ta you Point, but I ain't _that_ damn stupid."

"If Colette were awake… she'd talk about redemption, about how there is hope for you, even though your scam artistry must have ruined the lives of hundreds."

"Good, she's sleepin', I won't have to hear about that crap." Lych snarled, he looked into the shadows beyond the fire, shook his head.

"You must have been desperate." Raine murmured. "With your brothers… condi-"

"Shut up!" Lych hissed, drawing his sword he pressed it against her throat. "Just shut the Hell up! Don't you _dare_ drag my big brother into this!"

Cool as ice, Raine looked into the imposture's eyes; she acted oblivious to the steel that rested less then a hairs breadth from spilling out her life.

"I thought you were the younger."

"It's what _he_ thinks. It'd jus' confuse him if I tried to explain…" Lych lowered his blade, his scarred face pained.

"That's common with Moon Touched. Few are as articulate as he is few as... intelligent."

Lych's face twisted in pain, then the man gritted his teeth and slammed his sword into his sheathe.

"He wasn't gunna be stupid, he looked that Damn Goddess in the eyes and said 'fore he came around. _You might try ta make me stupid but I ain't havin' none of it_. He lost, ya can't beat Gods, but he fought hard for what he's got."

Raine said nothing, Lych sat down, stared into the fires.

"You don't know how much damage you're causing. You're hindering the _real_ Regeneration, making us fugitives. That's why Kratos wants to kill you, what you did to Lloyd was little more then added incentive to that homicidal maniac."

Lych shrugged. "I know that if I didn't I'd starve, my brother, my girl, her friend, we'd all starve. Humans just don't hate the Points, Witch. They hate everyone. They hate the poor, the weak, the smart, the dumb, the strong, so if I tell a lie, I screw a few people over, so what? They hate us anyways, and I hate 'em."

"If we die the world dies." Raine hissed. "If we fail the world dies, can't you see that, don't you understand?"

Lych snorted, turned to look at the refugees. "Like I care?"

Apathy, indifference, to that shield no passion, no logic, no life, could touch. Eyes dead as a corpse's, Lych looked at her and smiled.

"Like I give a damn for the world that did me over? I owe no one _nothin'_ girl, I protect my own, they protect me, that's it."

X

"Easy-" A hand clasped over his shoulder, and he relaxed, recognizing both the firm calloused hand and the soft voice. "-you've had quite a day."

Water whispered, lapped against sand, he fuzzily heard that, could feel the cool sand under his back. His first through was "I'm at a beach" but that was just plain stupid. It was at least thirty miles to the coastline and there weren't any beaches on the way to the next seal. Just shear cliff.

"We're by a pond, if you're curious."

Lloyd closed his eyes with a chuckle. Figure Kratos to know what was going on in his head before he even opened his mouth.

"Was…" His voice was all scratchy sounding, all harsh.

"Here." Something was pressed to his lips. He opened his mouth, took a few mouthfuls of the water then turned his head aside.

"No… more… ung I feel sick…"

"Too much mana." Kratos said gruffly. "You're a Sensitive; someone who can feel mana and absorbs it in small amounts. I had to use a great deal of my power on you to fix you up, couple that with the concussion you had-" Kratos paused; there was a soft scrape as he sealed the water canteen. "-little wonder you're feeling sick. I'd do something about that, but any more exposure to the arcane will cause you to get sick, and it it's not in one way it will be in another."

"You're a load of comfort."

Kratos chuckled, patted him sympathetically. Lloyd groaned, rolled over, and –unlike say Genis would have ran off… granted he'd have ran off to fetch Raine but still- Kratos stayed as Lloyd got re-aquatinted with his last meal.

"Feeling a little better?"

"Water!"

Kratos offered the re-opened canteen. Lloyd took a mouthful, gargled, and spat out the water.

"I hate getting sick!" Lloyd moaned.

"Can you think of someone who likes it?"

"No…" Lloyd weakly rolled away from the spot he'd gotten sick at. He would have rather gotten up, but the world started spinning and he knew standing would equal getting sick again. "Damn, this is embarrassing…"

He was about to drift off to sleep, when something that had been nagging him shot to her surface, he jerked, eyes opened wide as he woke up completely.

"Kratos, we gotta go back to the others… there are bandits and… a Dragon out there, and they got a lot of people held cap-."

"They have been dealt with." Kratos firmly put his hands on the young man's shoulders, forcing him to remain down. "Lloyden, trust me, all has been dealt with."

"Where is everyone?"

"Back a ways." Kratos' tone and expression twisted slightly. It was only a hint of something, but for Kratos' tone to change at all meant that whatever he felt must have been deep.

Bitterness was in the tone, a flash of jealousy glittered in those dark eyes.

Lloyd squirmed a bit, Kratos let go, stood.

"I'll need to go back to camp, it's the day after we rescued you and I imagine Professor Sage will be looking for you and will be after my blood."

"You're smart right?"

Kratos blinked; or rather Lloyd imagined that Kratos blinked as the mercenary had wandered out of his range of vision which consisted of the blue sky above his head and an annoying branch right in the corner of his eye.

"Where are you going with this Lloyden? If it's meant as a joke, know I am not in the mood for…"

"I thought smart people didn't forget things, like promises, made in Palma Costa."

Kratos' silence was long, maybe a little guilty, Lloyd could read glares and long looks but he was still learning his "long silence" Kratos speak translations.

"You know the boat, journey, questless, payless, thing we have planed after the Regeneration?"

"You mean pointless?" Kratos chuckled.

"Yeah, that too." Lloyd closed his eyes, decided it was safe enough to squeak in a Katz nap. After all if Kratos had "dealt with it" then that meant all the innocent monsters (could monsters be innocent?) in a ten mile radius were probably diced into ingredients and stewing in Genis' cook pot by now. "Don't be greedy, 'k?" Lloyd yawned. "They're m' friends too… and I don' wanna have t' yell at you 'gan t'…" Lloyd rolled over, curled up a bit on his side.

"I understand, sleep well Lloyd."

"M' not sleepin' real… ee…"

"M hm, indeed."

Lloyd's only response was a snore.


	27. Happy Easter Guys!

Chapter 27

Shards of Regeneration

Happy Easter!

_To my readers,_

_Before anyone asks… my cats do what Noishe does, except they take pencils and pieces of paper, not earmuffs. Umm kinda Easter-y (sorry I wasn't able to get this up any sooner, think of it as a late Easter treat), thought the "Bunny" is green and not… uh whatever color he's supposed to be. Next chapter they'll get in the temple, I promise!_

_Kasan Soulblade_

"Have it?" Colette asked.

"All the gear's set!" Genis grinned. "We won't be caught off guard _this_ time."

"This was a great idea Genis, you're a genius!"

"I know, I know." The small wizard rubbed his nails on the front of his sky blue coat.

Soon ear plugs purchased at Izoold were passed around, then the earmuffs picked up in Asgard were brought forth. Though without angelic halo or anything else "holy" about them they seemed the most beautiful things in the entire world. From somewhere up ahead Raine was twitching, was dancing and twitching as she looked upon the grey stone step pyramid. This was the oldest ruin in the whole world, it stood attacks during the Kharlan wars, had served as sanctuary to the ancient people who now lived in Asgard. Once, even before Asgard had existed, it had been a shrine to the tribal polytheistic people who -after the angels had "enlightened the world"- now existed bond to monsters, like the Dragon Riders. History was seeped into every stone, every line, chisel mark, scratch, held great import not only in ancient history but modern lore as well. It loomed above them like a squat version of the Tower of Salvation, climbing up and up till's it's peak was lost to sight by the wispy clouds that crawled across the heavens...

Raine continued her interesting mix between seizure and what Colette termed as a "happy dance". Kratos stared at the crazed scholar and backed up. His eyes wide were wide, his hand wrapped around the hilt of his sword for comfort.

"Ms. Sage, I swear to Origin... Hell will freeze over before you dragoon me into carrying another damned basket..."

Suddenly Raine went still, her eyes wide, watering. Genis and Colette shoved in the plugs and snapped the earmuffs over that.

"MARVEL-"

Lloyd swore that birds took flight, the sky cringed, the winds winced, and the grass whimpered in terror at the sheer volume of that cry. Of course that whimpering might have been Noishe, who was stuffing his paws into his ears and looking like he wanted to go back to Iselia or something. Poor Noishe, dragon riders, storms, crazy scientists, crazy elf ruin modes, he was just plain suffering. Especially since Kratos was really mad at him, for not coming back right away when Lloyd had gotten captured a few days ago.

Sighing Lloyd put the earplugs in and put his earmuffs over that.

"I'M GUNNA BE OVER THERE TAKING NOTES!" Genis yelled, holding a sheaf of paper and sealed inkwell and feather in his hands he could only jerk his head to a small hill _very_ far away from the ruin.

"OH, LOOK, A DOGGY!" And so saying, Colette skipped to some shadowed half wall that marked the place that some building had been centuries ago. She advanced on the innocent dog with a wide smile. The animal would never know what hit it.

"Me and Kratos are going to be sparring." Lloyd told the confused Raine in a somewhat more normal voice then the others had used. "Come on Kratos."

He considered the man, the cape fluttered in the eternal winds around this place, and Lloyd grinned. He snatched up a tip of the cape -one for each hand- then dragged the shocked man off. Fair was fair after all, Lloyd thought with a grin as he imagined the man's hissed words that (because of the earmuffs etc.) he couldn't hear, you dragged me off by my leashes now you get a turn.

X

"Death by asphyxiation is not how I want to go." Kratos rasped, he'd unclasped his cape and had set the thing under the nice large rock Lloyd had brought for him. The boy had pocketed the ear plugs but had lain the fuzzy grey 'muffs by Kratos' cloak. "That was _ill_ of you Lloyd."

"Hey now… no changing languages on me… stick to one language _Krabos_."

"We are _not _going through that again!" Kratos snarled, anger flashed in his dark eyes at the corruption of his name that Lloyd had tagged to him at Iselia's temple.

"Come on, how many times do I get to get one up on you? And since we're sparring it's not like you're going to get back at me in like five minutes."

"Sparring…" Kratos growled. "Isn't a way for me to "get back" at you _Lloyden_. It's just there for me to teach you, to keep you from dying, because I won't be able to save you every fight. You have to be able to save yourself. The world is harsh, cold, cruel _Mer Ori_, and sparring is just a way for me to teach you, to shield you even when I'm not there to physically do so. _Never_, even for a _heartbeat_, think I take any satisfaction from the fact that in order to teach I must sometimes leave marks upon you with my blade."

Lloyd blinked; startled by the intensity that Kratos said that last bit.

"I… I'm sorry… I didn't really mean it like that. It… was a joke… really…" Lloyd gulped as those black eyes bore into him with a disturbing intensity. There were times –few and far between but they still were there- when Kratos got so serious, so intense, that it freaked Lloyd out. This was another one of those times.

"Perhaps,-" Kratos frowned, "-but you meant it. There are things -many things- that you joke about, that you mean; that bring me anger and grief."

"Maybe if you didn't take things so seriously-" Lloyd grumbled. "-you'd actually find my jokes funny."

"If you took yourself seriously, you might make better jokes." Kratos snapped. "Just draw your swords Lloyden, think about what I've said as we spar."

Sighing, Lloyd did as ordered.

"You know… when we're gunna to travel together I think the first thing I need to teach you is how to laugh at things."

"Lloyden, there is very little in this world that inspires awe, mirth, or anything after you've been alive for as long as I have."

"Whoa, I'm going to be all old and cynical when I turn twenty? Scary."

There was a flash of green a little taller then the grass; Lloyd began to stalk around the mercenary, deliberately going away from the green thing advancing on the rock.

"I'm older then twenty.' Kratos growled, he thrust with his blade and Lloyd backed up, holding each arm out, the blades rested in an "at ease" so they kinda drooped. The mercenary frowned. "This isn't a game!"

The man accented his words by a sharp swing of his blade. Letting out an oath Lloyd shifted his grip and crossed his blade, he didn't have enough time to lock his arms or anything, and was thrown back so hard that he landed on his stomach a foot away.

"Oww…"

"You should have been able to block that." Kratos scolded, sounding so _Oriss_ like that Lloyd fought down laughter despite the fact he was hurting like no one's business. "If you had paid attention and focused on what was important rather than running your mouth…"

"Like you?" Lloyd snickered.

"What was that?" Kratos' eyes blazed.

Ignoring the threat Lloyd smirked, looked past the mercenary. "Run Noishe, run!"

It was then Kratos turned. He whipped around just in time to see the green and silver creature stoop down, snatch his cape in his jaws, and bolt.

"Noishe, return my cape, right now!" Kratos bellowed.

Noishe skidded to a stop a goodly distance from Kratos. He looked over his shoulder, met the mercenary's eyes, and then turned his back-

-and began to wiggle his rear at Kratos.

"I think that's a "nah nah na naaah nah."." Lloyd said sagely.

"Laugh as much as you like _Lloyden_," Kratos growled. "But you have failed to notice that your earmuffs are missing."

"Say wha-!" Lloyd hopped to his feet, and he'd be damned if his earmuffs weren't missing! "Noishe, bad dog!" Lloyd snarled. "Give them back, right now!"

Noishe turned, shifted his position, and then wiggled his rear at his master.

"I believe that is a "nah nah na naaah nah" response, correct me if I'm mistaken, after all you _are_ the Noishe expert." Kratos returned blandly.

"Shut it!" Lloyd flared. "Give it over Mutt… Now!"

"Whine?"

"That's it!" Lloyd drew both his blades. "You get back here!"

"_Lloyden_…" Kratos sighed, but it was too late, Lloyd was off and running, holding his blades over his head, promising to do a number of painful things to Noishe when he caught up with him. "He want's to be chased…"

To run faster Lloyd had tossed aside his swords, and seemed to be actually gaining on the tail wagging dog shaped creature. At least until Noishe moved out of his crisp jog and went into an all out run.

Rubbing his temples, Kratos walked over to pick up Lloyd's swords.

"You are still a child _Lloyden_, I don't know whether to grieve in that… or rejoice."

Then, since Lloyd was still so young, and was in need of someone around him who could defend him, Kratos worked the blades onto his dress belt and followed the path of the charging "dog" and the "dog's master". Though who was master to whom, was -in Kratos' mind- open to a great deal of debate.

"Damn it Noishe, get back here!"

Shaking his head, letting out a bitter sigh, Kratos sheathed his blade and then jogged after _Lloyden_. Gods only knew that with an Assassin around, the Impostures, monsters, and the land belonging to three very playful spirits with equally twisted senses of humor, Lloyd might find himself running into all three. At once.

X

"Bark!" Noishe skidded to a stop less then two feet away, kicking up grass and dirt.

"Hey!" Genis shielded his notebook with his body, the earmuffs and earplugs that rested in his lap.

His protest was ignored, the green and silver dog dropped something large and black, and something small and grey on the startled wizard's lap.

"Hey aren't those Kratos' cape and Lloyd's earmuffs?" Genis muttered, drowning somewhat under the folds of black fabric.

"Bark!" Tail wagging Noishe bobbed his head and Genis laughed, pulling aside the cape and scratched the dog's chest.

"Good one, you know for a dog you're really smart."

Noishe lolled out his tongue. Watched with scrunched up liquid brown eyes as Genis fished out a pen and clean piece of paper to take the prank down in his notes for how to pull off better jokes. Seeing his opportunity the dog snaked his head down and Genis found the half of his book obscured by teeth and a green snout.

"Hey!" Genis tugged on his book. "Let go!"

"Grrr!"

"You're drooling all over my notebook, let go!"

Noishe shoved the wizard off with a huge paw, prize in hand… er mouth… he knocked the small elf down. Something black was tossed over Genis, the elf herd a "click" then the heavy pinning weight was gone. The silver haired boy stood, his eyes blazing.

"Give me back my book dog…" He hissed. It was a good Kratos impersonation, certainly it sounded scary enough to make Noishe take a weary step back. Genis clambered to his feet took a step forward…

And the wind kicked up and nearly blew him away. It was then he realized that the "click" had been Noishe clipping (who wore clip on capes… no one in their right mind wore something that cheesy, but then Genis knew Kratos was nuts anyways so it wasn't that much of a shock) the mercenary's cape to the small elf.

"Ahh!" Genis pin wheeled his arms, then fell over and grabbed at the ground to keep from being blown away.

Safe for the time being, Noishe turned on his paw, did his fast becoming trademark "the butt wiggle" then ran off.

"Help!" Genis screamed, hearing the heavy footfalls that heralded the approach of someone. He didn't care who it was, just so long as they got this horrible, gangly, ugly, hazardous, _thing_, off of him!

"Genis… whoa what happened to-?"

"That dog, that evil, sadistic, homicidal, _dog_ did this!" Genis bawled. "I'm losing my grip… help!"

"Hold him down; Sylph would not be above making him fly off." Kratos' voice barked out from somewhere behind Genis.

But all Genis could see was flowing black fabric, he whimpered, and then gasped as something large and heavy smashed into him.

"Oww... Lloyd… Can't breathe…" Genis grunted.

There was another click; the feeling of something tugging at the cape, trying to use it to drag him off the ground was gone.

"Got it! Wha- oops…"

Kratos easily jumped up, snatched the cape and settled it across his shoulders even before he had landed from his four foot hop.

"Holy Martel!" Genis croaked eyes wide. "That's impossi-"

"My ex-sphere has many attributes, much like Lloyd's." Kratos said, for once his hair wasn't in his face as the winds had thrown it back so it looked like a porcupine was nesting on his head or something. "I am able to enhance certain non-combat related feats, jumping, landing, running, so on and so forth."

"Normally I have to concentrate and junk…" Lloyd grumbled.

"I've been around longer then you, and I've had my exsphere a lot longer then you Lloyd…"

It seemed as if Kratos had stopped himself from saying something. Lloyd nodded, almost like he knew that Kratos was leaving out and understood. Before Genis could ask Lloyd pointed to the hill that Noishe was gleefully mooning them all from, Genis growled, flexed his fingers and Lloyd went for his swords.

"You dropped these." Kratos sighed, handing Lloyd his twin katana's.

"Oh… heh; thanks Kratos!"

"Thank me by gaining some sense." The mercenary snapped. "Never drop your blades; it's the greatest show of immaturity a swordsman..."

"I said I was sorry…"

"Bath time, you hear me you mutt, _bath time_!" Genis yelled. "Maiden of tranquil waters, expel this creature… no bathe it… really soak it…."

"HOOOWL!"

"Ummm… Genis…" Lloyd gently shook his friend's shoulder. "He's not there anymore…"

"Huh?" Genis came out of his fantasies of a saturated screaming dog being swept out to sea by a massive title wave born of his mana when Lloyd interrupted him.

"He ran off, like a minute ago."

"You get back here Noishe!" Genis screamed, drawing his kendama. "I want my diary back!"

"You keep a diary?" Lloyd blinked. "Hey, I wanna read that!"

Genis glared up at his friend, something like a Raine-ing promised in his eyes but with electricity.

"Ummm… I mean… Noishe needs a flea bath! He's being beyond bad today, let's go stop him!"

"Well now that you have your sword-" Kratos turned to walk off and leave the children to play without him in attendance. His plans were spoiled when Lloyd made a grab for the ends of his cape. Seeing the move Kratos easily backed out of the attack, he glared at the young swordsman.

"Come on Kratos, we need you, you're the only one strong enough to wrestle Noishe to the ground."

"Wrestle Noishe the ground?" Kratos sputtered.

Genis nodded. "I'm going to magic up a lake and Lloyd's going to tie Noishe up."

"Then we're going to scrub him." Lloyd growled. "With bubble soap, he hates bubbly soap."

"I'm not participating in such childishness." Kratos growled. "And neither of you will "magic" up a lake." The mercenary barked. "The ecosystem is delicate; making an artificial lake in the middle of a plain could cause all sorts of problems and lead to the determination of the natural order of…"

"He's Raine talking…" Lloyd whispered to Genis.

"I know, he's scary when he does that, isn't he?"

"Scarier than Raine." Lloyd murmured.

Kratos shut up at that, crossed his arms in front of his chest and was about to say something…

Something green whizzed in the air and smacked into the back of Kratos' head. The man growled, clutched at his head and whirled, his eyes blazing. Tail waging, the dog lolled out his tongue.

"Noishe, why'd you throw your throw disk, I'm supposed to throw it then you're supposed to catch… Uh oh! Kratos, are you alright?"

"Colette!" Genis giggled. "Do you have my book?"

"Yep, I was gunna give it back but Noshy took his throw disk to play fetch with himself." Colette told them, coming down the hill to join them.

"I'm going to turn you into a pelt Noishe." Kratos hissed; his black eyes blazing.

"Bath time!" Genis growled, flexing his fingers.

"Flea bath time!" Lloyd snarled.

"Oh I love tag, can I play too?"

With a gleeful bark in answer to Colette's question Noishe ran off. Two swordsmen and a wizard were thinking of nothing more then bloody vengeance, the skipping Chosen and green and silver dog only running for the sake of running and for the fact that the weather was fair.

X

They finally caught Noishe, he was sitting on a mess of their packs, dark eyes glittering with a hint of teasing scorn. Since he'd won the game he had treated himself to the contents of Kratos' afternoon rations. He waged his tail in greeting, then pulled out one of Kratos' socks and tossed it to the winds. The black fabric was picked up by the playful breeze and sent fluttering of some distance away. By the looks of things he'd rooted through _everyone's_ packs and tossed all the socks around. Hints of red, blue, white, orange, and black, peaked out amongst the grass all along the hill by the temple.

"Noishe!" Lloyd gasped, clutching his side he couldn't scream like he wanted to, but managed an indignant squeak.

"D… damn it…" Kratos rasped, even the man's formidable stamina was all but spent. "You know we're going into a death trap later today."

As if to dispute that claim, the winds brought the sound of another of Raine's MARVELOUS!'es to their ears.

"Alright… possibly tomorrow…" Kratos wheezed. "That does not give you leave to… is that _my _food?"

"Whine?" Noishe nearly doubled his eyes in size and looked innocent.

"You damned dog!" Kratos rasped. "I'll…" Drawing his sword the mercenary advanced on Noishe.

"Me first!" Genis croaked.

"Un uh…" Lloyd coughed. "My turn!"

"Oh, a sock hunt!" Colette chirped, only a little winded, but then she hadn't been yelling as she ran. "You think of the best games Noshy!"

"Bark!" Noishe yawned, looked at the homicidal males then looked around at the socks that –any second- could be blown away by the winds.

"Later, you are mine!" Kratos hissed, sheathing his blade. "Pelt, you hear me dog, pelt."

Noishe yawned, rolled on his back and stared at the clouds over head, and the mess of flying socks that the next gust of wind sent to flying all around.

"Get them!" Lloyd yelled. "Their flying away!"

So the "sock hunt" began.

"Gotta black one, eww Kratos you need to wash these!"

"Shut up magi, _Lloyden_, you need to stitch the hole on this one…"

"Lloyden, ha ha makes him sound like a gir-"

"Shut it or these blue ones meet my swords!"

"Oh look, lots are here, I got 'em!"

"Hey, you're cheating, no using wind magic to blow them to you!"

"I'm not cheating!"

"Are too!"

"Are not!"

"_When_ did this become a game? When is chasing laundry enjoyable?"

"Kratos look out!"

"My sock tastes that good, eh Kratos?"

"Eng…"

"Better then Raine's cooking."

"Pleh! Indeed..."

"Hey, Sis's cooking isn't _that_ bad!"

"Yes it is!"

"Yah, chasing socks is fun!"

"Colette…." The two boys sighed.

"A… frilly blue sock… heh."

"Shut up!" Genis flared. "Their dress socks, for church! Raine… made me buy them…"

Seeing the chaos was in full swing and wouldn't be ending anytime soon Noishe put his head on his crossed forepaws and decided a nap was in order.

X

Raine came back around nightfall. A fire had been set, some animal had been skinned, and was coking over the fire. Lloyd and Genis were tucked away in their bedrolls; the Mercenary was curled around some small project. A bit of red thread ran through a needle as he lifted his hand, then it was gone as it speared the _whatever_ it was that Kratos was sewing. That wasn't new, Kratos tended his armor and like during his watch, it was Colette who shocked her. She stood by Noishe –a tied and gagged Noishe- gently weaving ribbons through his wet newly brushed fur.

Spotting her the dog's eyes went wide, he twitched in her direction, and though gagged he tried to speak

"Mmmph!"

A number of buckets were about, and white mounds of soap suds were so plentiful that if might as well have snowed. Looking at her sleeping brother she was surprised that his hair was wet, and Lloyd was actually curled up in Kratos' blankets, the mound of wet red fabric had been weighted down with a few rocks and left to dry on some squat pillar.

Not even bothering to look up from his work Kratos growled a gruff "Don't ask."

"I wasn't… going too…" Raine muttered, settling down on her blankets she was surprised to see that as she set her piles or newly made notes aside that someone had taken out all her socks, washed them, then folded then into tight knots and left then on top of her pillow.

"Hee hee… are you having fun Noishe?"

"Murmp!"

"You'll look nice and pretty in a little, then I'll put on some perfume and you'll smell pretty too!"

"Muuurrrrrm!"

Smiling, satisfied, Kratos set the needle to his teeth. He made a knot at the base of _whatever_ he was working on, bit off the end of the knot, and then wound up the remaining red thread around the hilt of his knife. He lifted up the red sock, looked up to admire darning and sewing job, then set it aside and reached for the socks mate and went to work on it.

"Kratos… are you mending to Lloyd's _socks_?"

"He needs to sleep." Kratos replied just a touch defensively. "He worked on the others, but fell asleep over these, so I thought I'd finish for him. We won't have time tomorrow if we find the entrance."

Raine really wanted to ask, almost did, but the look that Kratos cast the thrashing Noishe told her not to.

"I couldn't find the stone." Raine sighed. "I looked everywhere, read the writing, so far as I can tell there is no oracle stone."

"Not all seals proclaim themselves to be seals, we'll all look tomorrow. Did you consult Linar's notes?"

"Yes, there was an altar where he indicated, but it was not of the Martelian make, some pagan replication, obviously it's an artificial piece put in a few centuries ago..." Raine sniffed.

"Ah…" Kratos' dark eyes glittered strangely in the light. "Perhaps the holy order of Sylph, seeing their temple was falling into ruin; brought the most sacred artifact from their chapel here so that the Martelian pagans would guard it… thinking it was their own."

Raine's face went red, and the mercenary chuckled.

"Pagan means unbeliever, I used the term properly. All explanations and adventures can wait until tomorrow though."

Kratos threaded his needle; red trailed after the point of the needle, and went to fixing the hole on the heel of the sock.

"Go to bed Ms. Sage. Tomorrow will be a long day."

Then he paid her no more mind, went to his task with a single minded determination that made her –despite herself- think of Lloyd.


	28. Looking for the front door

Chapter 28

Shards of Regeneration

_Author's Note: I played and beat the temple (did it in the right order too –fire, water, wind - normally I take the hard route on Mania for some challenge) last night, made a ton of notes on the writing, monsters, and the like. Now to make another Temple epic chapter in the next chapter (rolls eyes), come on, after the events of the Fire and Water temples it gets hard to not think of these "temple" chapters as non-epic, I'm stalling a little but it's a good kinda stall. Although they do go in the temple, so I do keep my word! Long chapter for today and (hopefully) tomorrow, to make up for the shortness of the other chapters. After Balacruf time will come for another hiatus of sorts. I need to keep playing and mapping to refresh my memory… plus the groups got a month of solid travel on their hands and I need to manage that somehow. This is the large scale travel I was talking about earlier on. Since you guys like the style that I used in the PalmaCosta chapters I need to think of enough events to keep things going in the upcoming "long walk" AKA journeys to Luin and Hima. Since the game has a ton of hiking back and forth I'm going to need a lot of upcoming events to brighten the part of the game that nearly drove me to be as crazy as Kratos... Ummm… about this chapter's intro… Lloyd's being a smart aleck (teenager thing, I imagine all of you know what it's like when you have days like this) and addresses something I've wanted to see addressed for a looong while. Some more Kratos Lloyd bonding. Yeah, another sword scene, I've been neglecting those for a while so I thought I'd fix it… OK time to shut up and actually tell the story. Parting note… Pink…_

"It figures." Lloyd grumbled, staring at the marble altar in the center of the ruin which was conveniently not surrounded by any form of debris or rock or anything that would take away from it. "Why do these things seem to scream "hi, I'm a sacred artifact, press me to open the door to the chapel!" it's getting a little old."

He was promptly smacked by Raine, scolded at for being sacrilegious, rude, and inconsiderate. Then _since_ it was so blatantly obvious Raine, Colette, and Genis, went off to search the ruins for more holy hints to prove whether or not if the alter was the real one or not. Rubbing his head, Lloyd glared at his friends. What had he said wrong this time? He had been telling the truth and the dwarven vows had taught him to always tell the truth. Lloyd sighed, his anger faded away into a kind of numb sadness, and he sat by the oracle stone while his childhood friends ran around the ruins, translating bits of angelic lore from the walls.

Kratos, he noticed, was glaring knives at Raine, and then the man shook his head. Hand wrapped around the hilt of his blade, the mercenary leaned against a pillar, then closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and seemed content to let the wind tug at his cape and hair. Despite himself, Lloyd smiled, he knew what Kratos was doing, and he knew how much it would tick the angels off.

"It's not fair." Lloyd huffed. "You get away with it, but every time I open my mouth and say what I'm thinking I get smacked."

"I'm older then you." Kratos muttered, letting his dark eyes open he turned and looked at the red clad swordsman. "Also, I made it clear to Raine what her hitting me would get her."

"Well… I can't do that." Lloyd growled, he bent one knee, set his chin upon the knee and laced his fingers around his ankle. "I can't do anything…"

"Have you talked to her about it yet?"

"Once, she said when I was an adult she'd stop."

Kratos dagger glare that went Raine's way became, if nothing else, harsher. Not even opening his eyes Lloyd knew that Kratos was "Kratos-glaring" Raine for all he was worth. Funny as it was, that made Lloyd chuckle.

"_Mer Oriss… ne-iea_ ummm… what's "that" again?"

"A pain in the ass." Kratos grunted. "Angelic's specific if somewhat mystical, when it relates to describing things that are vague yet material the language starts to come apart at the seams."

"_Mer Oriss.. ne-iea a pain in the ass_…"

Kratos actually unbent enough to laugh at Lloyd's joke.

"Hey, point, got ya to laugh! How come you don't laugh all that much anyways?"

"Various reasons." Kratos snorted. "Circumstance, or what I'd rather call Fate, has given me a hard hand over the years."

"Thing's will get better." Lloyd promised.

"My wife was found of saying the same thing." Kratos sighed; his dark eyes were black and empty with a hint of what once must have been a crippling grief. "It's good to see that even though she does not live… that her spirit lives on."

Lloyd blushed, rubbed at the back of his head and found a pillar far in the distance really fascinating. From what felt a world away Raine was lost in her ruin mode, Colette was skipping after her, and Genis was trudging after them both, taking notes.

"You know… if Raine writes that book on the Regeneration Journey like she's got planed half of it's going to be on the ruins, and it's going to be two million pages long, and boring, and drawn out…"

"True gods defend us against her writing that book." Kratos shuddered, sparing Raine a look filled with terror.

Lloyd grunted, rubbed his cheek and then turned his head so that his unmarked cheek was resting on his knee. He knew Raine hadn't tried to hurt him, but it did hurt, maybe because it was someone he cared about doing the smacking. He'd taken claws and swords and arrows without wincing, but Raine's hit caused more pain then all of that combined.

Maybe he'd try to talk to her again, or maybe he'd better learn not to talk when she was around, he hated to do it that way but he couldn't really see another way.

"She's a hypocrite."

Lloyd opened his eyes, stared at the mercenary who was watching him with his intense black eyes and picking the thoughts out of his head again.

"She claims that she seeks enlightenment, she seeks knowledge, but what she writes, studies, and lectures, is the world shown in one way."

"One Goddess, one Path."

Kratos bared his teeth in a mute snarl. "Hypocrisy, there is more then one path, more then one way, to not see it is to be blind, to be blind… well the intellectually blind can not be wise."

"Yeah… I guess…" Lloyd squirmed. "Uh Kratos… could you not do that… you look like a rabid Noishe or something."

The anger faded and the lines of rage between Kratos' face smoothed, he raised an eyebrow and Lloyd sighed. The boy scrunched up his face and bared his teeth and growled, and then he relaxed and gave Kratos a long look.

"You do that, every time Raine opens her mouth. It's really creepy."

"I'm not… that hostile."

"Oh yes you are." Lloyd smirked. "You're worse, I mean you're in black and have that natural creepy thing going on, it makes it a hundred times scarier then anything I could do."

"Natural creepiness?" Kratos sounded… pained.

"Definitely-" Lloyd unlaced his fingers then relaced them. "-you're just too quiet, and you only say meaningful things, and ummm…" Lloyd frowned. "Where'd I put that list?"

"List?"

"Un huh, there's waaay too much for me to remember off the top of my head." Lloyd chuckled.

Kratos' dark eyes went distant then flashed as understanding descended.

"_Lloyden_, are you pulling my leg?"

"Who, me?"

Kratos mock glared, crossed his arms in front of his chest and advanced.

"Whoa, no pool dunking and no magicking me after you kick my ass." Lloyd snapped, scrambling to his feet, pulling his swords from their scabbards.

"Perhaps." Kratos' dark eyes flashed with a glint of humor, he drew his long sword, but didn't bother to strap on his shield. That was the mark of their games, and showed how they were different from sparring and stuff. If Kratos strapped on his shield he wasn't going to hold back, if he did pause to put on the shield then Kratos wouldn't tolerate one second's worth of silliness.

"We get caught, Raine's gunna kill us. Remember Thodia?"

Kratos shrugged. "Some sparring in varied non-flat terrain will be to the greater benefit of the continuance of your martial education. Don't worry; I'll save you from the Raine-ing"

Lloyd chuckled, spun his blades around then braced himself, absently sliding into a battle crouch he tapped his blades together and Kratos winced.

"You're damaging your swords every single time you do-"

He cursed, rolled to the side and avoided the demon fang that went his way.

"Am not!" Lloyd crowed.

Kratos' answering demon fang chased after Lloyd, smirking Lloyd jumped, and his exsphere flashing like a fallen star he easily made it to the top of the seven foot tall pillar with one leap.

"You're waaay too slow old man!" Lloyd crowed. "You'll never catch me!"

"Oh really?" Kratos purred, he lifted his hand, the exsphere on the back of his hand gleamed with a silver blue radiance.

"You wouldn't dare! Chicken, bawk bawk bawk! An old man like you could never make the jump!"

Kratos charged, and Lloyd knew that Kratos was going to jump and probably land sword swinging. The red clad swordsman spotted a shorter pillar with a half of marble cross beam propped against it. He'd take the hit then bolt, after all head to head he got his but kicked, but Kratos did not know who he was dealing with chase wise. Even before he got his exsphere he could run anyone in Iselia and out of it into the ground.

Smirking, Lloyd crossed his blades over his head as the blur of black almost flew past, the flat of Kratos' sword smashed home, but even as Kratos descended –blade leading- Lloyd hopped off the pillar.

Steel bit into stone and Lloyd was long gone. He smashed into the cross beam, rolled to kill the force of his fall then pulled the white neck ribbons out of his eyes. Then, just to rub it in he leaned on one of his swords and looked p at the confused mercenary.

"What took so long?" Lloyd called up, and the man whirled, his black cape flared out behind him like a pair of night hued wings. "I've been waiting here… forever."

"If forever consists of a handful of seconds its little wonder you get bored so fast."

"Hey, I haven't _been_ bored in weeks, if I recall you were napping last time Raine talked about the Kharlan war, and that was two days ago!"

A flash of silver in the mercenary's hand was warning enough, Lloyd brought his blade up and blocked the thrown _Aruyag_ piece, he was kind of grateful that it wasn't a knife. The coin was just another confirmation that Kratos wasn't taking this too seriously like the mercenary tended to take everything else. Lloyd pocketed the Gald piece worth twenty normal coins, and then yelled out mocking thanks.

Kratos' eyes bore into him, and then the man leapt, made his landing without rolling.

Yeah, Lloyd knew he was dead, but like with the skits, and in Thodia, he smiled. Punishment could be the nastiest Raine could cook up, but it was worth it.

Kratos advanced, tried to look grim and serious but the man's lips were twitching.

And even as Lloyd advanced on the narrow ruin now made walk way for their game he felt a slight twing of jealousy. This was a hint of the Kratos that Kratos' wife had seen; this was a hint of the Kratos that had had a son that shared his name.

For them, –and he had to admit, though it was really greedy- for himself too, he'd try to bring that old Kratos all the way back.

X

"Crickets."

"Huh?" Colette looked up from her studying the stone tablet -or if you asked Raine it was "S-t-o-n-e-T-a-b-l-e-t"- that Raine had asked to have translated.

Genis pointed to the black and red blurs that were hoping among the pillars on the other side of the ruin like a matching set of sugar rushed crickets hopping among a field of grass.

"Oh… my… Goddess…" Colette dropped the tablet.

It broke with an audible crack, Genis though didn't hear. He whistled as he spotted a flash of silver wink in the space between the swordsmen. He didn't want to think how fast those swords were going through the air.

"Oh no!" Colette began to wring her hands. "I broke Raine's thing-a-ma-bob!"

"Her what?" Colette… you sound just like Ll-. Sweet Martel!"

They both looked at the broken relic; both considered what they knew of Raine's ruin mode.

"You know… Palma Costa has good weather this time of year." Genis said slowly.

"It does?" Colette sniffled, she sounded like she was going to cry.

"It's OK." Genis took her hand in his. "Raine will understand, especially if we aren't here when she get's back."

"But…"

"Trust me, OK Colette? I'll make sure you don't get in trouble." He gave her hand a tug. "Come on; let's go see what's past that wall way over there." Genis pointed to some remains of a half decimated wall whose top peaked up at them. Its bulk was lost somewhere at the base of a hill that was a goodly ways away. "Maybe we can find that dog from yesterday or Noishe to play with over there."

"Alright." Colette smiled.

"You didn't do anything wrong." Genis assured his friend, while mentally resolving that if Lloyd didn't stop sparing with Kratos long enough for Genis to ask him to take the blame Genis would do so himself. "Accidents happen. Come on! That walls not getting any closer!"

"Hee… You sound like Lloyd now."

"Lloyd gets good ideas." Genis grinned. "Well… every once in a while, occasionally… rarely."

"Stop teasing him, Genis!" Colette then pulled a Lloyd hair ruffle. "Oh I have an idea, let's get those wing wind things and fly them!"

Now that sounded like a good idea!

"I call the pink one!" Genis chirped, before Colette could say it and get her favorite "wing". "Unless… you can… beat me to that wall!"

Wings appearing in a flash of gold light Colette grinned and then ran. She was hopping, and fluttering, and running all at once, and going a lot faster then he ever could. Well that was going to change! He ran, muttering a few words he pointed behind him and a gust of wind threw him forward. Laughing -he had underestimated the force of his spells propelling capabilities and overestimated his weight, the results were rather predictable- he picked himself off the grass, and ran again, even as a giggling Colette was brushing off grass from the front of her coat. They ran, and tripped, but laughed, mixing arcane, angelic, and running into just some plain old fun.

X

He caught the blade, shoved it back and lashed out with a foot. Kratos easily hopped back out of range of the low kick, and brought his blade –flat leading- down. Lloyd slammed both his blades into the stone, pushed back, and the mercenary's blade "tinged" against the stone.

Letting lose the hilts of his blades Lloyd spun in the air, pulled off a back flip and managed to land feet first instead of say… on his stomach where he'd landed last time he tried that stunt.

Just a little dizzy from the move Lloyd stepped forward and leaned on his blades, shocked he'd actually imbedded them in the stone. Yeah, the stone was old and weather beaten and stuff… but still…

He tugged on his swords, while Kratos watched. A slight smile graced mercenary's normally expressionless face.

Lloyd tugged, and tugged, and Kratos began to snicker.

"Damn it, this isn't funny!"

"P… part of strength is control, being able to con… con…" Kratos lost his lecture and began to laugh as Lloyd –with a curse- wrapped both hands around the hilt of one of his weapons and tugged.

"Out… damn… it!" Lloyd snarled, pulled so hard that his face was turning red and his hands were going white.

"Easy." Kratos snickered. "You don't want to fall from this height, do you?"

That brought Lloyd up short, he let go and glared at the weapons. Yeah, it wasn't much taller then say… three Noishe's in height… but still it was a formidable fall.

"When you're done laughing I'd like a little help with my swords."

"I'm done… for the moment…" Kratos' voice was choked, and wavered like no one's business, but Lloyd smiled and pointed to his sword.

"Hey, I'll get a turn at least, you can't get them out if I can-"

With one hand -_one hand!-_ Kratos pulled out the blade that Lloyd had been struggling with and handed it to the shocked swordsman.

"What? Is there something interesting about my face or something?"

"N… no…" Lloyd shook his head. "It's just… damn, I think I'm getting somewhere and you do something like that so easy like and I realize how much farther I have to go."

"_Lloyden_… I've had the time and the will to train and over train myself all through my life. You had a childhood, had and have a life, where I didn't and do not." Kratos pulled out the other sword with a slight grimace. "Or rather I denied myself those things in the sake of pursuing perfection, or rather what I though perfection should be."

Lloyd caught the tossed blade and leaned on it after sheathing its twin. He made a point of being very careful not to push on the blade too much though. One stuck blade was enough for him.

"I am… on so many fronts, ignorant. I knew nothing of living, for the bulk of my life I wasn't at all bothered by anything vaguely resembling emotion. It was only after my defeat at the hands of the mercenary Maveric, after that man basically handed my ass back to me on a silver platter, that I realized my mistakes. I couldn't understand why the people I was escorting had bothered to save me, why they tended my wounds and kept me company after I'd been an ass to them…"

Lloyd considered it, leaned a little more on his blade so that the weight of thinking fast wasn't as bad for him.

"They were waiting, waiting for you to wake up."

Kratos blinked.

"I waited… I waited for a few years for someone in Iselia to wake up, to… no not wake up, for them to open their eyes. To see what I really was and not mind that I was me."

"You are wise, _Lloyden_." Kratos said as the last traces of what Lloyd thought were "deep thinking" lines smoothed away and the mercenary's face settled into a cool impassive façade.

"Yeah, well… Not again!"

"On some fronts you are wise." Kratos amended with a chuckle. "You still have much to learn."

"Not you too… Have you been taking notes from Genis!"

Kratos only snorted, moved to pull the blade out.

"No, I'm getting it this time." Lloyd growled.

Shrugging, Kratos turned, began to pick out paths down that would be the least treacherous to descend. Game time might as well be over, they had been fooling around long enough and this wasn't a pleasure jaunt after all…

He felt a slight tugging on his cape, and he turned in response. Lloyd, both swords on the ground at his feet, was looking up at him, brown eyes far too wide, far too innocent.

His cape thudded heavily against his back. He frowned, pulled it up and stared at the hastily made bow that had been tied into the ends of his clock.

"You do understand-" Kratos said in a cool voice as he untied the bow. "-that this means war, don't you?"

"Yeah, I figured." Lloyd grinned. "So, before you pound me into next week, you think Raine's ever going to stop ruin mode-ing anytime today?"

"The probability lies somewhere between that of Hell freezing over or Celsius admitting her undying love for Efreet."

Before Lloyd could ask who Celsius was Kratos lashed out with his blade and Lloyd staggered back, almost went over the edge.

Shit… well Lloyd learned never to mess with Kratos' "all powerful strong demigod of swordsmanship" image ever again. He didn't even try blocking the hit; he turned on his heel and jumped, hoping he could land on some pillar or something before he fell.

X

The ground in front of him slopped, Colette, with a victorious squeak, fluttered down the hill, her pink wings a blur as she stole the lead Genis had just gotten. No way, he wasn't losing, ducking his head he muttered words under his breath, then with a sweeping gesture he released the spell. Ice, like white chilly blossoms, grew over the ground in front of him. It spilled down the hill like water and with a whoop he jumped up and slid down on his rear. He squealed with delight, Colette laughed…

And the wall closed with a speed that he hadn't expected!

"Eep!"

"No!"

Colette flared her wings, back peddled desperately, Genis cast a wind spell at the wall but the mana ricocheted off the mass of it's non-arcane opposite. The resulting breeze made him spin around and 'round while he slid down. He hit the wall back first; Colette smashed into the wall above him and landed at his feet.

"Wee oww…" Colette giggled, her eyes a little glazed from the impact, her pink wings making slow lazy sweeps behind her.

"Owww…" Genis winced as stars burst in front of his vision.

"That was… fun…" Colette whimpered, blinking back a few tears of pain.

"Except for the wall part." Genis groaned. "You know what, when we feel better you can just have the pink kite."

"Th… thanks…" Colette closed her eyes. "The grass is soft, nice and soft."

"You don't have to tell me about it." Genis said with a slight grin. "Umm if Sis asks…"

"I tripped and knocked you down with me." Colette said, as it was their favorite (and oldest) cover story for the times they got hurt while doing something extremely dumb and silly.

And with that Genis knew everything –despite journey and angelic and magic stuff- was the same as it had always been. He took a lot of comfort in that.

"Hey Colette, have you ever hit a wall so hard you saw stars before?"

Colette giggled, rolled over and looked at him.

"Once or twice."

And like idiots they both started giggling and couldn't stop. They laughed until it hurt, Genis fell over tears pouring down his face while Colette giggled and hid her face with her hands while she giggled.

"Oh man, we are not telling Lloyd, he'd never stop making jokes!"

"And no telling Kratos." Colette said with a smile on her face. "He acts all serious but he's worse then Lloyd when he talks to Noishe."

"Phht, I doubt tha-"

"Demon fang!"

"Missed me by a mile old man!" Lloyd's voice crowed from the other side of their sanctuary.

"_Double_ demon fang!"

The wall shuddered and dust trickled down, falling into their hair. Genis squeaked, and Colette drew him close, her wings shielding them both.

"Hey, Kratos, try to dodge this! Demon fang!"

There was a thump as the rock –not a demon fang- hit home.

"Heh, psyche! Oh crap…"

"Fireball!"

"Deal Luna… Guardian!"

A fireball arched over the wall, spiraled lazily like some crazy wrong way headed meteor then exploded into a beautiful rain of gold and red sparks.

"Great Kratos… start a fire on a plain… and you call _me_ dumb?"

"I damped the fire _mer ori_, stop giving me attitude." Kratos huffed.

"Yeah… surrrre…"

"_Lloyden_."

"Alright alright… hey I'm hungry, we done sparing yet?"

"You're always hungry." Kratos' voice though somewhat growly wasn't at all harsh. It was almost as if the growl was a joke.

And if it was, then it was one that Lloyd was in on. Lloyd laughed, and by the sound of it swatted Kratos' shoulder.

"Come on, you gotta be a little hungry after ruin hopping and fighting…"

Kratos sighed. "Yes, a little, but you, the proverbial bottomless pit has found a place in that area you call a stomach."

"Prod-vor-ta-tell?"

"Pro-ver-bi-bial… Where _did_ you learn to talk?"

"I dunno, Dad said I was talking when he found me and Noishe."

"And you haven't expanded your vocabulary since then?" Kratos sighed.

"Vo-cab-larry?"

"I believe that something of an academic sparring practice will start right about now, as we go to see if Ms. Sage has regained any of her sanity and returned to camp."

"You feeling OK Kratos? I mean we're at a ruin, the only thing that will make Raine think normal like at a ruin is if we stuck a bag over her head."

"I'd prefer a noose around the neck person-"

"Hey!" Lloyd flared. "She's my Aunt, so watch it!"

"She's _like_ your Aunt." Kratos corrected. "Don't drop words, or no one will understand you when you talk."

"I didn't "drop words"." Lloyd growled. "I said what I meant. Ung… forget food, I'm going for a walk!"

"_Lloyden, nu-iea mer de-_"

"And I'll walk by myself!"

Genis blinked, looked up to see an equally confused Colette looking down at him for the answers he couldn't give. Then, greatly daring, he crept from her embrace, on hand and knee he crawled to the edge of the wall poked his head around. The faint tickling of hair against his shoulder told him that Colette had done the same.

Kratos stood, alone, on the top of the hill, his back to them, the wind played with his black cape tossed it with a gleeful abandon that contrasted wildly against the clenched fists and stiff posture. So tight was Kratos' grip that his fingers were turning white, recalling the strength of those hands, Genis shivered wondered if the man had held a rock in his hands that it would have turned into dust in that grasp.

"_Ish-yerl Kra'sean… Ish-ya… Lloyden… mer phan Ori…_"

Snarling an oath Kratos turned on his heel and stormed back towards the camp. When he saw that they weren't back he might get mad, or rather madder then he was. Still if they came from the place Kratos had just been… he might grow suspicious, that thought kept him firmly rooted in place. He looked up, was startled by the glittering of water around Colette's eyes.

"Colette, are you hurt?" He gasped

"No…" She blinked. "Poor Kratos…"

"Wha- what'd he say?"

"He… said he was damned, he cursed… and then he apologized to Lloyd, but Lloyd wasn't there to hear it." Colette bit her lip. "G… Genis… When you looked at his threads… did you… know if he had any family? Do threads tell you things like that?"

"Huh? Well sometimes" Genis blinked, since Kratos was long gone he sat and Colette did the same. He looked at her pained expression, wondered why she'd asked him that. "If the person cares deeply, but Kratos didn't care, he was… no _is_ obsessed by the memories of his family."

"The… _memories_ of his family?"

"They died. That's all his threads told me, they died and he went crazy after they died."

Colette bit her lip, and then looked past Genis at something only she could see.

"If he cared for them so much… then why did he call Lloyd, _Lloyden_? Why… did he call Lloyd his _Ori_?"

Genis blinked. "He's called Lloyd _Lloyden_ for a while, why's that important?"

"Ch… changing a person's name from common to Angelic is a sign of great affection. And… _mer Ori_ means "my son"."

Now it was Genis' turn to bite his lip, he stared at Colette, his blue eyes nearly violet in worry.

"Come on." Genis stood, and despite the fact she was taller then him, -by a lot- Genis offered Colette his hand. She smiled, shook her head, and then picked herself off the ground. "We need to talk to Raine, now."

X

Kratos sighed, snuggled against Noishe's flank. Pleased to be back in Kratos' good graces the creature wagged his tail. Absently Kratos ran a hand through the dog's mane while he talked.

"I screwed up somewhere, yet again."

Noishe whined, made his tail stop wagging and nudged the silent mercenary with his cold wet nose.

"How is it _every_ time I lower my guard, relax around him, I insult or find another damned sensitive spot. The boy isn't that fragile, is he?"

Noishe shook his head, and then licked Kratos' gloved hand.

"Yes… yes… pet pet pet… I can multitask, you and I both know it, but I don't have the heart to at the moment."

"Bark."

Kratos sighed, closed his dark eyes that burned with unshed tears.

"It's like losing him, again and again. Every time we fight, argue, or I act my pigheaded self as my Love would term it…" Kratos sighed.

Noishe sighed as well, nuzzled the man's neck.

"You aren't a substitute!" Kratos growled, pushing that large head aside.

"Whine?" Though heart broken sounding the whine was, the wagging tail told the true story.

"You think this is funny?" Kratos hissed.

"Bark!"

"Sadist." Kratos snapped. "You don't know what it's like…"

"Whine whine whine…"

"Like he and Dirk ever fought?"

Noishe rolled his eyes and made a groaning noise.

"You're telling me that they fought?" Kratos snorted. "They're so damned close I can't see them fighting, period."

Noishe jerked his head up.

"So every once in a while then?" Kratos hazarded.

Noishe jerked his head up a few times and Kratos frowned.

"I can't believe they fought frequently, Lloyd doesn't have the temperament to start a fight unless he's ticked, and despite his ready flashes of temper it's all on the surface."

Noishe traced a "D" with the black tip of his snout across the air, and Kratos snorted.

"Dirk, he hardly seems the type for having-" Kratos frowned, recalled what he'd seen of Dirk and he scowled. "Fixated, locked in the morals of his people… human traits, morals, might bother him… could wear away at even the most tolerant man's temper…"

Noishe nodded, then jerked his way back to the path, the rocky path that lead to the temple and Kratos smiled, leaned back and went back to scratching the silver and green creature's back.

"Thank you, for reminding me."

Noishe's eyes scrunched up, then the tail wagged and the leg rose as Kratos found the "spot" quite by accident. That wonderful glorious _spot_ that all animals had, it was a place so great that he had to scratch at it.

"Hey!" Kratos snarled as the foot hit him in the face. "Damn it Noishe! Stop it!"

"Howl!"

As Kratos received a few bumps and bruises before he realized what was going on and what he was doing wrong the mercenary had to admit, even his friendship with Noishe, like Lloyd, was much like an untamed trail. Hard at first, rough, to those who had the strength to traverse it… the rewards were beyond measure, the sights had the potential to be both glorious and horrifying.

X

"Mmm hmmm…" Raine continued to write in her note book, she had burrowed herself into her books at their approach, and not even a crow bar could force her out by the looks of it.

"RAINE!" Genis shrieked into one of his Sister's pointed ears.

"PROFESSOR!" Colette screamed into the other.

Squealing, Raine hopped to her feet, book flying one way, pen the other, her battle staff clattered noisily at her feet and she looked at them in shock.

"Genis, Colette…" She blinked at them, her eyes a little ruin glazed. "I'm busy and if this is a prank…"

And seeing that she was sane everything they'd seen and everything Genis knew came spilling out. Raine looked up at them in shock, startled that they were so aware of the situation. Of course Genis had known most of it, but the darker portions of what Kratos had confided in her to keep his job, she had kept those hidden from her brother. She had told Colette nothing.

Two young minds, a few words between Kratos and Lloyd, and it seemed as if the proverbial cat was out of the bag.

They were in near states of hysteria. Scared to death for Lloyd, worried about Kratos' sanity, so worried for the mercenary that she was surprised by the depth of their feelings. She hadn't expected any of them –especially Genis- to be concerned for the surly mercenary in the slightest.

"Children." She reached out; set one hand on Genis' shoulder and one on Colette's and drew them close to her. "First; thank you for coming to me before you did anything rash like confronting Kratos."

"Sis… what can we do!" Genis sniffled; he held her orange coat in a tight grip of fear, anxiety.

"Nothing," Raine sighed. "Kratos and Lloyd have made an… agreement of sorts. You know that Lloyd's mother was killed by the Desian's as was his father…" Raine smoothed her brother's hair. "Kratos' family was killed by the Desian's, by the Desian' Cardinal in Luin. He lost his wife and son long ago, and his… addressing of Lloyd as his son, and his taking of Lloyd as a pupil and adoptive offspring is in his way of redemption."

"But what about Dirk?" Colette gulped. "Lloyd… he hasn't forgotten about Dirk has he?"

"Of course not sweetie, Lloyd told me himself that he's going to talk to Dirk about that when he… goes back to Iselia for a few days after the journey's done."

"He's not going to live in Iselia again!" Colette and Genis _both_ protested her statement.

"No, after what happened, he will never go back to Iselia if he can help it. The attack… and the fact that Ivan swore a blooding oath against him… will make it so that Lloyd will never go back to Iselia, not unless he wanted to fight the mayor's son, and after what his actions caused..." Raine sighed. "He doesn't want to go back, it's just not a matter of "can't" it's also a matter of does not have any interest in ever returning."

"But… I was as guilty as he…"

Raine shook her head. "He pressured you into it Genis, and if you hadn't he would have attacked by himself. What happened would have happened anyways, it was just a matter of time."

Genis nodded, but Raine had a feeling he didn't agree with her. He would see, in time.

"But… if you have any questions about their agreement… I would suggest you talk to Lloyd about it."

"What about Kr-"

"He requested that if either of you found out about it that he not be "pestered by an endless grating question answer session"."

"That does sound like him, doesn't it?" Colette smiled slightly.

Raine rolled her eyes, released them both.

"Now is their anything else you'd like to ask me?"

"How's Lloyd feel about this, when'd this happen!" Genis sputtered. "All I ever saw was that Kratos and Lloyd started talking in Angelic a lot."

Raine sighed. "To the second… Kratos' fixation with Lloyd being his son… Whether he saw it as reincarnation or some other pagan way of semi-rebirth… It probably happened when they met in the Temple. All I know is that even before you joined us, Kratos was prying Colette for stories about Iselia."

Colette nodded. "I thought he was just being nice."

"And how many of those stories involved Lloyd?"

Colette frowned. "A lot, he was interested in those so I told him most of my Lloyd stories."

"He was conducting research." Genis blinked. "Extensive, subtle, hidden, all signs of obsession."

"Exactly." Raine nodded. "I won't say that Kratos is sane, nor is he insane, but he hovers at the very brink between the two. That might be why he embraces paganism that allows him to think that what happened to his family was his fault and lead to his extensive wallowing in grief that eventually lead to the first unhinging of his mind."

"The _first_!" Genis squeaked, looking so fearful as if he expected Kratos to appear with a bloody sword to kill them all.

Raine chuckled, ruffled her brother's hair.

"He was suicidal, only the actions of his friends kept him from killing himself. He eventually shook off those urges and wandered around taking jobs, not caring who he served, no longer caring for anything. From what he told me it took him years to recover to the point he is at now."

Colette blinked, whipped at her eyes. "What did he do… when he was… sick…"

"He doesn't know and he doesn't care. But he's feared in some places -like Izoold-, and respected to the point of near adore in Luin, he's a hero in that part of the world. A man who attacked and fought the Desian's… He laughed, said it was probably the time he vaguely remembers spent hunting and killing anything that moved that was garbed in black."

Genis shivered and Colette looked sick.

"He is… almost completely without morals, honor, or compassion. He is a pagan. He is possessed of a cruelty, aloofness, and hatred that if it wasn't directed at the Desian's would have got him executed long ago."

"He's trying to convert Lloyd." Colette whispered.

"He's trying to mold Lloyd into another version of him." Genis spat.

"No, he isn't. He's teaching Lloyd the lessons that he's learned, the swordsmanship, self defense, and yes… they talk of Kratos' alien faith… But it's just talk, and Lloyd is too stubborn for anyone to mold. If…" Raine's eyes grew shadowed. "No… I will be straight forward. The only reason Kratos is still here is… the only reason I _allow_ him to remain is because I trust Lloyd to see when things are getting to dangerous and tell me. At that point we'd both drive Kratos off."

"If Lloyd turned on Kratos…" Colette whispered.

"Yes, Kratos would go insane. I have little doubt about that." Raine's lips quirked into a bitter grimace. "But even as Kratos embraces insanity by being with us, he also pursues his own salvation. Lloyd is Kratos' compassion, he reins Kratos' temper in, Lloyd is hope to Kratos' grim depression, Lloyd is Kratos' foil and perhaps the man's only hope for retaining and regaining any visage of humanity."

Genis blinked, stewed over that while Colette murmured something in Angelic that he couldn't quite catch.

"When the… Goddess made Kratos, she must have put a small piece of the Beast within him." Colette whispered.

Not understanding the reference Raine moved to ask, but Colette beat her to it by explaining.

"The Beast is unbridled passion, hatred, pain, rage, it's born of grief and anger and rests in everyone's heart, and the Goddess shows us how not to listen to it. By denouncing the Goddess, Kratos embraces the Beast, perhaps Lloyd could bring Kratos to the tranquil light, give him peace."

Genis rubbed his head, this was too much for him to take… every time he thought he'd nail something down about the mercenary, or Lloyd -or anyone really- someone just came along and whipped the rug out from under his feet.

"Perhaps." Raine sighed. "Perhaps."

X

"Hey, Noishe!" He hissed; the dog looked up from grooming the sleeping mercenary's hair. "Good one!"

Tail wagging Noishe winked, then snaked his head to rest it in Kratos' lap.

Lloyd chuckled, sat down and then opened up his ration pouch that he'd just emptied. It had taken them longer then Kratos had planed to get to the temple. They had to escort the survivors of the bandit's camp back to Asgard, and not having enough money to even stay at an inn or buy food they'd camped outside and hunted for several days. Satisfied by the amount of food they'd captured, they'd left Lych and the fake Chosen's to get the credit of the rescue and gone to the next seal.

The hardest thing had been keeping Linar's mouth shut. Kratos had talked to Genis, Colette, and him about why they were keeping their mouths shut. Attention, the impostures were now Deisan bait as they paraded around continuing their charade, if they moved away from Luin and went back to Palma Costa –as Kratos had ordered them to do- they would get enough money to satisfy themselves, drop the act, and then settle down somewhere far away from their old hunting grounds.

"_There presence and pain they inflict upon the world in temporary, in less then five years no one will remember them and most the wounds will be healed."_

Explaining that to Linar had been hard. Lloyd had stepped on the poor half elves toes so many times during a time a public outburst would have been bad that Kratos had come over and knocked the man out. Between the two of them they had dragged Linar off. Kratos had –at Lloyd's insistence- healed the scholar and that had been the end of that. So they had left the city of ruins (again), hunting as they traveled. Or rather Kratos and Lloyd had hunted and kept their catches far away from Raine who was eager to cook and ruin everything they brought back.

Poor Genis had almost cooked off his fingers with all the cooking he'd had to do.

"Look…" Lloyd sighed, shifted his swords around and looked at the comatose mercenary, guilt writhing in his stomach. "I'm sorry for losing my temper and all that at you. It's just…"

"She is family, lacking you have made do. I accepted Tylor, but her… it's harder to accept her as the animosity between both of us is all too real."

Lloyd blushed, startled that Kratos was awake and embarrassed that the man had heard him confess. He would have sworn that Kratos was asleep! Still not opening his eyes the mercenary tilted his head so that it faced him.

"Are they any other cousins' aunts, uncles, and the like for me to know about, so I don't wind up ticking you off with some criticism in the future?"

"Just Tylor, Phadria, and Raine." Lloyd muttered. "I've… never let anyone else pass my Oath. Colette... she'd never pass, not with the Goddess running every part of her life… and Genis well… he's too young, it's a lot of responsibility, I mean I am a handful after all."

"Well worth it, never doubt it, despite all the grey hairs you give us." Kratos chuckled, then the man cracked open his eyes. "Sit down _Lloyden_… tell me… of your family, everything."

"What… you… I thought you'd never want to know."

"I'm jealous.' Kratos admitted with a wry twist of his lips. "I'm greedy, possessive, arrogant, and, condescending. If I had any choice it would have been _me_, not Dirk, who found you that night. I would have taken you as my own with no qualms of guilt in my soul." Kratos whispered his dark eyes intent. "I would have given you everything, anything that you needed, would have raised you as a human, not a dwarf. But that's not how it turned out, so I must deal with being second, or perhaps the last to find a way into your heart."

"You... aren't last…" Lloyd whispered, his eyes smarting he blinked, shoved down the tears.

"There is no shame in tears _Lloyden_."

With a sharp stab of pain he winced, and at those gentle words he felt something inside crumble and he cried. Kratos' arms were around him, and he cried into that shoulder, both grieving and hating himself for grieving, that in some part of his soul… he wished… he wondered… how things might have been.

"Now-" Kratos brushed away the last of the tears, a sad gentle smile. The smile that graced his face made the man of ice utterly human. "-tell me, tell me of your family."

"I… met Tylor… in Iselia… when I was little. I remember him walking with me and Dad ba- back home. We were… going home." Lloyd smiled. "His boots, I played with them when we camped at night, and he'd laugh and say he spoiled me for every other toy in the world. He had his tail packed away, but because I asked and asked he put it on and tied his green ribbon around his head and let the ends droop like Noishe ears. He got in trouble with Phadria because he was dressed like that when he entered Iselia. He said he "forgot" to dress normal like."

Lloyd chuckled, and even though he smiled tears crept from his eyes. He found himself leaning against Noishe's back, Kratos' arm draped over his shoulders.

"It… he always made sure I played. Even though Ivan, and the Mayor, and everyone didn't want me to. He talked to me, spent as much time with me as the others. One day I followed him home hoping to find where he kept all the candies for the hunts. I hadn't caught all that many, I was smaller and shorter then everyone else so I rarely got anything, and I was still hungry."

Lloyd snuggled against Noishe, and the dog barked and wagged his tail.

"I came in and he was working over a stove, making cookies. He'd just come back from a Hunt, and he'd been in prayers before dawn, and there he was making treats for the next one. I was surprised, and he hadn't heard me come in, so he hopped out of his bell boots in surprise, when I asked him what he was doing. The batter splattered all over both of us, it tasted good and Tylor yelled at me, but he was laughing when he yelled, so I knew it was alright."

So wound up in telling his story, so intent on listening, Kratos and Lloyd did not notice as the others slipped into the camp. Lloyd wound up his Tylor stories with the exile, with Tylor's last words in Iselia.

"He… said that he was a good son and that he needed me to be one too, that I wasn't old enough to go on the journey with him, so I'd have to wait until I was grown up… He never cried before… before he told me goodbye.

I met Phadria after that, Tylor took me to her, put me in her arms since I'd curled up in a ball and was just crying in the middle of the street. Phadria scared me a little; she wasn't like Tylor at all. She was so serious –nice but serious- and that was so new. I didn't know what to make of Martel back then, she tried and tired to make me follow Martel and that made me angry because Tylor didn't care if I didn't worship of not. I swore I never would… Martel took Tylor away and I didn't want anything to do with her because of that.

I scared Phadria when I said that, she asked me how I expected to be a good person and I said I'd be a good person without someone telling me if I was good or not. Wasn't I good now, yeah I slept in class and as hyper, but so what? I helped everyone I could, I was nice, and I followed the dwarven vows, how was that not good? If she had a problem with the vows she'd have to talk to Dad about it. She did, I think Dad scared her a little, but she did and she liked him and me even if we were a little wild for her taste. Also, since I was Colette's friend, what could she really do? I'd of sneaked past her and Frank to play with Colette, although I hated house and that's all Colette wanted to play when she was really little. I drove Phadria crazy, sneaking Colette treats and sneaking her out of the house to fish and play outside. Eventually Phadria started letting Colette out on her own so I didn't have to sneak in any more. Although, I did for fourth month fools prank when I put the buckets filled with water over the doors of everyone in the house… Eventually we stopped arguing about religion and junk." Lloyd sighed. "It took a looong while before that happened, but when it did, and I started protecting Colette from Ivan and the bullies around Iselia she started to like me. She kinda… jumped the call on me. I got hurt, bad, Ivan broke bones in one of our fist fights and Colette and Genis dragged me to Colette's house. Frank went after the mayor, I never heard Frank yell before, but he dragged me out and made sure that everyone saw just how hurt I was from the "game" that Ivan had been playing. He thought that would stop the Mayor, make him stop Ivan, but it didn't it got worse after that… but Phadrai took care of me. Frank went into the forest after night to tell Dad what had happened and Phadria stayed with me and gave me medicine and set my arm and everything. She stared watching after us, watching over Colette and moving to stop the mayor every chance she got. She even stumbled on Ivan beating me up and whacked him with her cane once…" Lloyd laughed. "Wham, right between the eyes!"

Kratos chuckled then blinked, and Lloyd jerked, both swordsmen turned to stare at the not so new audience of three…

"Uh… hey guys." Lloyd coughed. "Umm how long have you been there?"

"Long enough," Raine gave Kratos a long look and the mercenary sheepishly moved his arm so that it wasn't draped over Lloyd's shoulders, though he didn't seem to know what to do with it.

"So, after Phadria smacked Ivan did she "Raine" him?" Genis asked, eyes glittering with amusement at the bully's situation.

"Umm… No, Ivan ran off after that…"

"Ivan, chickened, from an old lady... umm no offense Colette."

"She whacked that Desian from Triet upside the head, remember?" Lloyd grinned. "The spiky haired guy in a dress; what's his name?"

"Unimportant." Kratos grunted.

"Yeah, she whapped Unimportant upside the head and knocked him out at the Temple, remember? Ivan was small fry compared to that."

"Lloyd…" Raine sighed. "Kratos was being sarcastic."

"Oh… Were you?"

"Yes, somewhat." Kratos scratched Noishe's back, if his arm happened to be hovering around Lloyd's shoulders without descending that was not his concern…

"So then what happened?" Genis chirped.

"Well…" Lloyd coughed. "That's a looong story and umm don't we have a seal."

"It can wait." The other's snapped, Noishe even growled at that point and gave him a "will bite rump if you fall quiet" kind of glare.

"Well… after Phadria whapped Ivan she took me back to the chapel and gave me one of those red gels. Poor Phadria, I bounced off the walls for hours, those things are pure sugar…"

"After we're done with Phadria I wanna know how you met Sis, I kinda knew you… I mean we met in Iselia but didn't really meet until you went to school." Genis stammered.

"Eh, I knew you. I just was a little creped out by the Book that you were always reading. So I didn't have the guts to talk to you."

"His book scared you?" Raine muttered.

"Well… it was bigger then him, heck it was bigger then me, yeah it scared me a little!"

The silver haired sibs started laughing and Lloyd chuckled.

"Oh shut it." Lloyd grumbled.

Then the ultimate blow came, Colette started laughing.

"It's not funny!" Lloyd snapped.

Then… to add salt on the wound Noishe and Kratos started sniggering.

"Oh for the love of Origin!" Lloyd growled, hopping to his feet he ripped out a bit of grass and pelted the loudest laugher, Genis.

"Hey!" Genis growled, armed with some grass of his own he chucked it, and missed.

"Ha, you couldn't hit the broad side of a bar-"

Snarling an arcane word Genis summoned a glob of wet sloppy snow.

"Don't you d-"

Genis threw and Lloyd cast Guardian, the missile bounced off the shield and smacked into Raine.

"Genis Sage!" The Professor screamed. "Lloyd Irving."

"He threw it and I ducked!" Lloyd shrieked in protest, drawing his blades to avoid the potential "Raine"ing. The eraser, who knows where Raine got it from she just had it in hand, smacked into his face.

Stupid chalk…" Lloyd staggered back, pulled a Colette step, and landed on something large that started cursing.

"Oww... Kratos your sword's poking me in gut…"

Colette giggled, until Genis pulled open his packs and threw a book at Lloyd and missed. How he missed the downed Lloyd was beyond everyone, but Colette owwed… and everything went silent for a long moment.

Muttering a few words in Angelic Colette's wings appeared with a flash of gold light and then her empty hands were filled with feathers.

"Uh oh… Hey, ouch…" Lloyd winced as the Merc threw him aside and fumbled out his shield.

Feathers, balls of light and evil giggles filled the clearing. The feathers –when they hit someone- exploded into a rain of pink fluffy things that got caught in the hair. The light just bonked into people like warm snowballs.

"Wind blade!" Genis cried out, and a mass of feathers floated after Raine and Colette.

Clasping each other's hands the women ran off into the ruin a crazed Genis cackling like Raine in ruin mode, wind flying from his fingers and tossing feathers ever which way… his silver hair was now pink fluff.

After the madness had passed Kratos came out from behind his shield, he stared that the fuchsia and pink shield, his expression mournful.

"Heh heh!"

Lloyd whirled on Noishe, the _dog_ was laughing at Kratos!

The pink covered dog who –now that he was one color- looked more rabbit then wolf like.

"Umm… Noishe…" Lloyd pulled out a mirror from his packs and offered it to his friend.

Noishe looked at himself, screamed, and started tying to roll in the grass to get the stuff off.

"Normally I'd say poor Noishe… but not this time." Lloyd put the mirror back in his stuff, not having the guts to look at himself.

X

"Here!" Colette pointed to the altar that had once rested in a room. The walls on the relics sides were crumbling, only the wall behind it –part of the main structure- was relatively whole and unharmed. "We'll see him coming and can split up if he comes."

Raine nodded her agreement, a wide smile on her face. She tried not to think about all the pink all over her, the small tiny feathers that were all around her now. She must look like a Harpy if Colette's appearance was any indicator. Raine pulled a water skin from her belt, took a sip, marveled at the insanity of the children to start a game at the base of another seal. Soon, they'd be doing jigs (and persuading the adults to join in) at the seal room I front of the angels or somethi-

"Wind blade, wind blade, in line you dumb feathers! In line I say!"

"Is… Genis suffering from a "feather mode", Professor Sage?"

If she sounded that crazed perhaps the long abstinence between ruins that would mark this seal and the next would be good for her.

"I… guess so… I'm… not that bad, am I?"

"Of course not, Professor!" Colette moved to clasp her hand; both Teachers and Chosen's hands fell upon the altar…

There was a flash of green light and the building behind them now had a new door after the angelic runes dissipated.

"Wind blade, wind bla- ha, I got you now!" Colette squeaked, bolted, Raine barely managed to dodge the attack of the pink fluffy wave.

Blazing past the altar Genis tried to skid to a stop, a small rock by the door made him stumble into the inner chambers of Balacruf.

Spell spent, the feathers drifted down, Genis screamed.

The dark of the inner chambers was broken by a flash of pink light.

A wind stirred, fathers drifted out of the temple, then after a long silence Genis crept out, his small body coated in feathers.

"I… found the temple…" He sniffled. "Sis, fix this!" He began to cry.

"Genis, what's-" Lloyd skidded to a stop and Kratos smashed into him, knocking the lighter swordsman to the ground. "Oww… Kratos… don't ever stand behind me ever again… please… I don't think I'd live through too many tramples… Hey," Lloyd lifted his head. "Isn't that the cave of Eternal Wind?"

"It's the Temple of Holy Wind, _Derris fa derri aerosy_, a place sanctified by the Angels in the beginning of time." Colete chirped

"It's called Balacruf in modern times." Kratos added.

"It's…" Raine began to twitch. "Marvelous!"

"Not again!" Lloyd moaned. "Not here… I'm not here…"

Raine, with a girlish squeal, ran into the ruin, her newly gained logic tossed to the winds.

"Maaan… I hate these things… Army of fire birds, demons, rock things, and now who knows what?"

"It's a wind temple, what could be in there, evil song birds?" Colette giggled. "Don't worry Lloyd; everything's going to be fine."

"She just Genis talked…" Lloyd grumbled at the mercenary. "Scary."

"She's complicated." Kratos shrugged. "Evil song birds, heh…"

"What about me?" Genis moaned, waving his arms and looking like an oversized pink chicken trying to fly.

Lloyd's lips twitched and Kratos even unbent enough to snicker.

"Come on Genis." Lloyd grabbed his friend's arm and dragged him to the door. "It'll be alright… I b-bet those things will fall out after you walk for a while."

Kratos only snorted, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't quite do so. But the n the giggles he was suffering from might have explained it.


	29. Wind feeds Fire

A/N: Written to the songs "Only Hope", "there's a song that's inside my soul, it's the one I've triedto write over and over again...", that lyric rather fits this story really well. An update or two for Shards, then I'm going back to Defiance for a little longer. Oh and once upon a time (about twenty chapters ago) there was a place called the Seal of Fire... and there were adventures there that are once again brought up in this chapter. I don't know who'll remember it, but if you don't you won't get some of the dialogue within.

Wind feeds Fire

chapter 29

Behind them, they left a trail of feathers, pink feathers, ruminants of their play, of an old joy. It was amazing -- mind numbing actually -- how much the world changed in a few steps; how walls and shadows of a room could so dampen their cheer could turn play into a memory.

It was amazing, sad, and yet… necessary.

How much he despised necessity, perhaps more in this moment than all the others in his life combined.

Raine looked up, fear banishing her customary mania, and the sight of her pale face and wide blue eyes, he nodded. Not in approval (he did not nod in approval over her state) but in understanding and acceptance. Behind them, there was the hiss of steel, the slash of century old blade sliding through the air. Behind them, the winds stirred eternally, caught along the flaws of the stone so that thier voices could be heard.

Kratos cocked his head as he heard the winds distort and warp to a sound that was vaguly reminecent ofa child's laughter, sparing a glance at Lloyd. The red clad boy was confused, and Kratos did not blame him in the slightest. In this quest they walked upon sacred ground. All of the seals rested in a holy place by a mass of conflicting faiths. A ground sacred to the angels of Cruxis, a place marked by so many years that ages of history had seeped into the stone (which considering the elven woman's insanity when it wasn't subdued was religion enough), and was the focal point of the elemantal _pagan_ faith that Kratos reveared.

As the regeneration group walked deeper in the temple, avoiding traps and the like, the mercenary could not help but think of the legends, the tales that had been the sustience of him during a hard bitter youth. He dwelt upon Sylph, the spirit with a soul so faceted that it had become three beings that shared one soul. He recalled how the children of wind walked in the shadows their home, randomly rushing out, to become -not Sylph, the spirit of Wind, but more primal then even Sylph itself. The three aspects of the Wind God would become the Untamed Gale, the Savage Whirlwind, and the Healing Breeze. Once upon a time they could have broken from their earthen confines to race across the world at whim. They would have been free to spurn the earth and play amongst the clouds, and stoke the flames of the distant stars, and harass innocent gods of light bearing the sun... No longer now, he could hear them, somewhat sulky despite their eternal patience, their steps, their patience, would someday be rewarded and what those of the Martel faith dubed _Derris fa Derri Aerosy, _would someday fall as the ages passed

The Gods -or rather God as Sylph was both a God and many Gods -- in their bordom had carved a confusing path, and while it was not as… _visible_ as, say, a river's white flecked trail, the effects of the constant breeze could be faintly seen. Halls were wider than they had been crafted to be -- only by a few inches -- but then the winds were gentle even as they were trapped in an earthy prison. The winds were patient, gently worrying away at the stone walls that the humans had built here centuries ago. They'd be free, someday, so they waited, walked down the paths, never resting, never tiring.

They'd be free soon enough, so the winds drifted through the halls, carelessly smoothing bricks and scraping away the scriptures upon the stone and making featureless the statues constructed in their honor. He sighed and leaned against the wall, hoping that unlike the last one he had leaned against, this one might not try to spear him. It was safe it seemed, safe for now.

Hopefully that wouldn't change too much in say... the next five seconds.

Near him, Lloyd grumbled something about damned booby traps. Hearing those words which demeaned the historical monument that was all about them, Raine's once dormant mania immediatly flared to life. She insisted prattling on and on about how those _booby traps _were used to protect the Balcruf family treasure.

"Treasure, what treasure!" Lloyd snapped, rubbing his leg, wincing as the phantom pain of the last healing ran through him. "All that's in here are a bunch of dead people in boxes!"

Lloyd was smacked, and Kratos winced in sympathy. He'd have done something to defuse the situation -- if nothing else, to put himself bodily between the elven woman and human swordsman -- before Raine could push the _arguement_ to the point of hitting; however, the deep gash in his side needed attention.

He hissed in discomfort as cells quietly knited together under the silver blue light of his healing mana, squirming ever so slightly as he could feel the blood rushing to the wound, spreading amongst damaged tissued and saturating the muscles and skin with sticky crimson. Slowly he opened his eyes, blinked back the span of disorientation and turned to see Lloyd's concerned gaze on him.

"I'm fine, the last one grazed me, that's all." Kratos allowed his lips to curl into a comforting smile. "Being able to heal one's wounds is definatly an advantage in a place like this. Now then, your arm..."

"Huh?" Lloyd blinked, then laughed sheepishly and extended his arm, marveling at the small cut he hadn't realized he'd picked up. "Oh this, it's' not important, just a scratch..."

Kratos glared and Lloyd sighed, offered his arms and winced at the force that Kratos' cold fingers applied as his they clamped around his wrist.

"Don't squirm," Kratos growled, letting his eyes close to mere slits.

Like everyone else who heard that warning, Lloyd ignored it. He squirmed and winced as he watched the small gash seal closed. Still it was better than just closing his eyes, better than not watching, because then he could feel it, he could feel every inch of the cut knit closed... Watching it made the feeling better somehow-- it didn't make the feeling quite as strong, crazy as that sounded.

"What did I tell you?" Kratos opened his eyes and Lloyd shrugged.

"Beats me, you weren't listening either?"

The mercenary growled then mock punched the boy's shoulder. Lloyd winced at the blow, but managed to keep his feet, unlike the other times that Kratos had teasingly socked him. It was an improvement, and hopefully a sign that he was getting stronger. Shaking his head to chase off the fuzzy feeling that Kratos' mana always left him with, the Iselian swordsman looked around to see similar scenes unfolding around him. Raine was scolding and healing her brother at the same time. The golden halo above Genis was so familiar now that it didn't bother Lloyd like it used to.

Genis got hurt, Raine fixed him. Colette got hurt, Raine fixed her. Raine's healing made angel-like halos appear around the person being healed. Raine's healing took away the pain with gentle warmth, but left scars.

That was just how it was.

"You coming?" Lloyd asked over his shoulder, half turning to look at the purple clad mercenary. The auburn haired man smiled, then shook his head to say no. Lloyd watched as the man leaned against the wind-smoothed wall.

Kratos liked to be alone; Kratos liked to brood; Kratos was intense and alone, that was just how it was.

But it was not how it always was going to be, _was_ was not _always will be. Despite_ what Raine _and_ Kratos thought, just because something was one way didn't mean that it always had to be that way.

"Well, you're coming," Lloyd growled. It took some effort to keep the satisfaction that he felt flare up in him when he saw Kratos' expressionless facade shatter and show -just for a second- a bit of shock and confusion. "Just cuz we've seen traps doesn't mean that there aren't monsters or anything like that not hiding." He turned, one hand still wrapped around the hilt he offered his free hand to the startled mercenary. "I'm not leaving you alone, not here. It's not safe."

"I can take care of-"

"Sure." Lloyd snatched the mercenary's hand and dragged the startled man to his feet. "I'll help, let's go."

X

There were empty tourches along the walls, and the incident from the fire temple was the only thing that kept Lloyd from rushing ahead to light the torches with the sorceror's ring -- that and a stern reminder from Sis.

"-and further more, Lloyd Irving, I don't care how silly the traps look, or how tempting the boxes filled with marvelous fascinating..." Raine shook her head as if to banish her mania. "...relics look, you will leave them alone."

"Yes, Professor," Lloyd sighed, scuffing his foot while looking back longingly at a trap that made a "boing" sound before making the floor sprout spikes.

"But if the boxes contain books, will _you_ leave them alone?" Kratos murmured under his breath. Genis' pointed ears twitched as he heard that, and he glared at the mercenary.

"You think if they have swords or shiny armor _you'll _leave them alone?" Genis snapped.

"I can resist temptation, but I recall once when you were fairly warned, you succumbed to the lure of a trap box in the first temple," Kratos growled, absently reaching out in the gloom and snagging Lloyd's leashes before the younger swordsman wandered off.

"That was their_ first_ temple, Mr. Aurion..." Raine began, her voice becoming hard.

Colette just sighed, flapped her wings, and then sheathed them. Without the pink illumination they had no light, darkness fell, and all the talk stopped. There was a long silence broke only by the sounds of wind against stone and the "boing" of steel spikes.

"Chosen, we need the light of your wings to see by," Kratos growled.

"No."

There was another span of quiet. Genis could feel his face twisting with shock, and he could easily imagine Raine's surprised look.

"I'm not drawing them until everyone says they aren't going to fight anymore."

"Colette..." Genis heard his Sis sigh the half-angel's name.

"I'm not drawing them until everyone promises to stop fighting," Colette's repeated, tone as hard as steel. Genis squirmed despite himself.

"Kratos started it!" Genis whined.

"Did not!" Lloyd leapt to the mercenary's defense.

"Did too!" Genis growled. "Why do you always stick up for that jerk-"

"Kratos is not a jerk!"

"Is too!"

"Is _not_!"

"Enough!" Steel rapped firmly against the stone floor of the temple, and both boys fell silent. "Since the Chosen will not be providing light I will supply," Kratos rumbled, no doubt glancing in Raine's direction with a pointed glance. "Unless Ms. Sage would like to offer some sort of light?"

"At the moment-" Raine's voice was icy, "-I'd rather not."

"Fine."

There was a rasp of steel sliding into it's sheath, then it came. A red star formed above them, becoming a stout flame as it drifted higher upwards. Slowly the fire spread, filling the cupped hand so that it illuminated the face and upper body of the mercenary in hellish red and orange hues.

"It's not as bright as light mana, or angelic mana, but it's enough to see by." Kratos swept the fire holding hand from side to side to offer them glimpses of the hall around them. Genis felt kind of dizzy watching Kratos swish the fire ball left and right and up and down and up again...

"Whoa!" Lloyd hopped back as much as his leashes allowed, and then tugged weakly on the ribbons. "Don't hold onto me and the fire at the same time Kratos!"

"_Mer phan, Lloyden_." Kratos released the white fabric, and Lloyd gave Kratos a wide berth while the man was playing with the fireball.

For a little it almost seemed like it was going to work, Kratos' swishing of the fire was enough to see by, and even though it made Genis a little dizzy it wasn't all _that_ bad.

As they rounded the corner, there there came a loud howl. The wind shrieked down the corridor, roaring towards them with a force that made them all cringe. Kratos squinted as the dusty gale swept over him. His hair was -for once- pulled out if his eyes. His cape flared out behind him, looking like a pair of twisted, blood seeped wings in the red light. Raine winced at the rain of red sparks that were born from the flame Kratos bore. Raine lifted up her orange sleeved hands in front of her face, while her ruby tipped staff was gripped tightly in one hand as if to beat back the rouge flames even as she cringed from the conflagration. Colette let out a loud "meep", staggered, then tripped, falling next to him so that Genis tripped...

"Kratos, cancel the spell!" Lloyd yelled, as the elongated flame arched over Raine and reached up going higher and higher till it licked at the stone ceiling above.

Snarling a few oaths the mercenary closed his eyes, and for one second Genis could sense a struggle. Wind fed fire, so to cancel a spell or damp the effects of the wind-enhanced mana flames would be harder than canceling a mere fireball spell... Lifting his head, squirming out from under Colette, the wizard began to gather his energies for a water spell. The fire had fanned out -- it was so thin that it was only a little more than a red and gold mist over their heads. For one moment the hall was painted in hues of gold and crimson, then slowly the sparks went out, and the flames dissapted until the light of the false starry sky went out.

"Kratos!"

Genis turned the the mercenary at Lloyd's startled cry, watched in shock as the man staggered then leaned against a wall. Raine got to the man first, muttering a few words she set a glowing hand to the man's brow.

"Genis, get an orange gel."

"I'm fine." Kratos grunted, "I am just a little winded from containing Sylph's anti-"

"Two orange gels: he's obviously a little confused from the mana depletion to be talking about fairy tales as if they were real."

"I am fine, Ms. Sa-"

Genis had returned with the gels, and the scholar picked them out of her brother's hands and turned to the mercenary.

"Well, Mr. Aurion, are you going to take them, or am I going to have to ram them down your throat?"

Sulkily Kratos took the gels from the woman, not doubting in the least that she would shoved them down his throat if he protested.

X

Golden light pouring from the tip of her staff like a misplaced sun -without the dangers of wind making it a threat to hair and the parties general well being- Raine took point.

And at every place there was runes, scripture, or statue they had to pause as Raine slid into her ruin mode and all progress stopped.

If this was going to be how it was through the whole temple then perhaps the world would be so far in it's decay that all of Cruxis' might wouldn't save it.

"No," Lloyd hissed, seeing the mercenary's hands twitch. "I know, I have a headache too, but _no_."

"Why not?" Kratos grumbled.

"Because... I... umm..."

"Yes?" Kratos murmurred.

"Well... I don't know, it just wouldn't be right."

"But the headache would stop, wouldn't it?"

"Genis would kill us."

"He'd try." Kratos conceeded with a grimace. "Then I'd have to kill him, then the Chosen would of course be upset by this..." Kratos cursed and Colette rolled her eyes.

Kratos was acting even sillier than usual. All he had to say was that he'd stop fighting with the Professor and the half angel would draw her wings. What was so hard about that? Well, obviously it was hard, very hard. Like how Ivan and Lloyd never would say that they respected each other. Their anger was hard, sharp, and hurt them and everyone around them.

Lloyd and Ivan's anger, Raine and Kratos' anger, it was the same type of anger that hurt everyone.

A small hand wrapped around her wrist, she couldn't feel it, was only aware of the pressure of the touch, no longer bothered by the hot and cold of it. She turned, and seeing the familiar tuft of silver hair looked down. Genis tightened his grip, scooted a little closer and then got on his tip toes to better whisper in her ear.

"I don't like Kratos all that much, but I think you're right: they're being stupid with this."

From up ahead Kratos twitched and Colette giggled, nodded, and Genis smirked.

"Wanna see a fast way to get Raine out of you-know-what-mode?"

Colette nodded, and the small elf smirked and let her hand go. Planting his hands on his hips he stomped up to his sister who was trying to hug a wall covered with anchient angelic script that -from what little she could read around the orange coat that was smushed into the wall- talked about giant legs and arms...

"Raine Sage!" He snarled, doing a really good Kratos impersonation. Lloyd hopped and looked to the purple clad man to see what was going on. The mercenary only shrugged, half turned to watch the two silver haired elves better. He seemed to forget about the monsters and traps that might be lurking in the darkness around them as Genis lifted one hand and waved a finger under Raine's nose. "What in Martel's holy name do you think you are _doing_!"

Stiffening, with great dignity, the elf scholar straightened her coat and rolled her staff under her hands. The shadwos around them shivered, save for that tiny black shadow that seemed intent on following them around. Colette ignored that. She lifted a hand to stiffle her giggle as Raine said in a sulky little kid tone that she was "conducting research".

"You, are not _conducting research_!" Genis yelled. "You're drooling something that's four thousand some odd years old!"

Kratos shifted, coughed and Lloyd looked at the mercenary in confusion. The man promised to explain it later, but his tone sounded like he'd never explain it if he could.

"What you need to do, Raine, is to pick up that staff and march ahead! I don't want to see you even looking sideways at a ruin until we're out of here! After we save the world you can "ooh" and "aww" over rocks as long as you like!"

Raine stiffened and her eyes nerrowed. She raised her hand as if to smack her little brother.

"He's right, Professor," Colette chimed in, "and you know it. And more important you _promised_."

Raine stiffened, her hand unclenched, her eyes cleared...

"Amazing, words _do_ work," Kratos growled to himself.

Anger flashed across azure orbs. Raine's lips tightened into a thin line and she whirled on the mercenary her mouth open as if to yell. Colette cringed back from the show of anger, even though it wasn't directed at her. Her eyes stung a tiny tiny bit, but she couldn't cry anymore, so she didn't.

"Apologize."

The mercenary now had a turn, he stiffened, his eyes blackened with rage. He whirled on Lloyd, part in rage, part in pain.

"You do not give _me_ orders, boy."

"When you're being a stupid ass, yes I do," Lloyd growled. "You both need to say you're sorry. Yeah, she provoked you, like a _week ago,_ and I know for a fact you'd yell at me if I was like that to anyone for that reason. So why can't I do the same at you? Because you're an adult? Well I'm one too, at least I was one in Iselia." Lloyd grimly met Kratos' black eyes head on then tilted his head to indicate Raine. "You can ask her if you wanna know about that, she can explain it better than anyone else here."

"You didn't!" Raine gasped.

"I did, he passed, deal with it." Lloyd snapped. "Stop fighting, you're both being brats. Come on guys!" Lloyd snatched Raine's staff from the shocked elf's grasp. "We're going to go save the world, you two can do whatever you want. We'll be that a way." Lloyd pointed to the path ahead, and holding Raine's glowing staff in hand marched off into the gloom.

Sheepishly Genis followed, casting his sister an appologetic glance. Colette, who possesed a hundred times more confidence in Lloyd's judgement, merrily began to skip. Her wings -which appeared with thier customary golden light- left a trail of gaudy glowing feathers behind.

Looking at the mercenary, her expression of horror was fast fading into the regrouping shadows. Kratos' face -as always- was smooth and quite expressionless. With only the faint flush of chagrin to add color to his palid checks the man drew his blade and brushed past the elf scholar.

Nothing had been said, no appologies had been tendered. Raine knew -even as she knew that the mercenary wasn't aware- that Lloyd would make sure there would be all hell to pay for that.

X

"Well?"

"Well what?" Kratos growled.

"You didn't?" The red clad boy's eyes grew flat, unfriendly.

"No, now's not the time."

"I guess not," Lloyd agreed, but the fire in his black eyes didn't die down in the slightest. Tightening his grip on his sword, wondering at the strange tension in his gut, the mercenary nodded. "Raine's staff went dead." Lloyd shook the length of wood, tapping the butt of the weapon against the stone floor of the temple that was more mazethan anything else. The beads rattled, feathers shivered, and nothing happened. No miricles were forthcoming from the "sacrid" item that had been given to the Chosen's party. The light that had shown on the weapons' tip did not re-ingnight despite the magic illiterate boy's attempts.

Such a wonderous_ angelic_ weapon had been gift of gratitude for saving the populance of Asgard from the claws of a demon. Despite himself, Kratos' lips curled into a half smile. Like all his smirks it was part mockery part joy. The mockery was directed at the blind faith of the nearly decimated village, the joy was born of rememberance of a battle gone well.

"Lloyd, you're going to break Raine's relic if you keep doing that!" Genis protested. "She'll raine you into next year if you do that."

"Raine will raine." Kratos snorted. "Amazing, I'm begining to grasp your obscure lingual..."

"Give me that young man!" Raine growled, storming out from the darkness and snatching her staff from the swordsman. The younger swordsman had turned it upside down and had been shaking it, muttering a few curses as it refused to re-light.

"Professor!" Colette chirped. "I wanted to ask you something ruin-ish... if you're mode's gone away I mean..." The girl lost her enthusiasm, stammered the last and looked at the floor.

Taking a deep breath, Raine walked up to Colette, drapped an arm over the child's shoulder.

"I think my mode's gone away, and even if it hasn't you shouldn't be scared to ask me_ anything_."

"Can vases walk?"

Genis groaned, Lloyd snorted, and Kratos rolled his eyes at the inanity of the question. For once the three males were united in their opinion of Colette's question. Raine squirmed, the word "vase" probably sniffed around the edges of awakening her mania. Then, in a tightly controlled voice Raine assured the girl they didn't.

"Then why's that one walking?"

They all turned and stared at where the Chosen had pointed.

The vase was small, no higher than Genis' knee. As if aware of the attention that was fixed on it the gold patern that had been shivering and slowly propelling the thing after them went still. One second, a faint glitter, and the drooping swirling marks of purple and green stiffened, became a fanciful swirling patern favored in earlier eras. The vase like creatures elongated drooping neck sucked in and straightened with a soft "crack". Soundlessly the maw full of miniscule teeth flatened and became triangular paterning that ran along the very lip of the creatures mouth.

"Raine, don't fall for it." Genis pleaded, grabbing the tail of his sister's coat. "It's not an artifact."

"No, it's a fake." Raine assured her brother. "Anyways, the patterning is obviously counterfitted, and it isn't even aged. I wouldn't fall for something that obvious."

As if to disagree with her the creature's hide molted along the belly, The scales were scales, for only a mometn, then they became dark, grey, fragmented... dust... In less than an eyeblink of time the monster had aged itself. Kratos frowned, tilted his head as he examined the creatures handiwork. At last he nodded, grudging respect in his voice.

"Impressive."

"Let's... just leave, now." Raine whispered. "Colette, sweetie, if that thing starts following us again tell us."

"Yes, Professor."

They walked down the hall, it opened, into a room. Pedestals made a virtual forest of stone about them. Thier was no order, no convienent rows. A pillar that was half of Genis' hight rested by a one so tall that Lloyd would have had to stand on Kratos' shoulders to get to it's top. On every peak, illuminated in the soft pink light of an angel's wings was a vase, all aged, all showing signs of millenia's worth of dust on their surface.

"Hey, I have an idea," Lloyd said in a sick sounding voice. "Let's avoid touching anything that looks all ruin-ish."

Genis whimpered, cringing against his sister's side, looking scared. And in good cause; if all those vases were alive like the one behind them, the boy had good cause to be scared. Kratos counted easily fifty of the things in his survey of the room, the largest were as thick as a man and could easily rival him in height while the shortest were the size of terrier dogs.

"Fan out, look for a door. Weapon's out. No one touch _anything_." Rolling the hilt of his blade he tightened his fingers as it slid into the proper place. A place where the caloses were hardest, a span of fleash shaped to take the handle of a weapon, a place earned after a lifetime of holding a sword. The Mercenary reached out with a free hand to grasp his client's hand. "Chosen, you're with me. And I swear-" the man grimaced as he saw one of the vases on the upermost pillars shiver in response to the light, "-you better damned well not trip."

"I promise I won't," Colette whimpered.

"Good girl, the rest of you fan out, stick to the walls. You find a door, you call out. If one of those things pounces... kill it fast before it rouses the others."

"What if they all do?" Genis whispered, looking around the room, his eyes wide.

"Just pray to whatever God you believe in that they don't," Kratos growled.

Pulling Colette behind him Kratos strode ahead, his one visible eye darting about as it flicked from relic to relic.

"It's going to be alright," Raine promised. She held her staff and twirled it 'till the feather's spun and the beads tinkled. The gesture caused the light to be reborn, now bathing both the Iselian boys in the light of her mini-sun. She offered her hands to the both of them. Genis took it though Lloyd couldn't because of the steel that was in both hands.

"Right behind you guys," Lloyd said, trying his best to smile. Trying not to show his fear as they walked into the heart -and what a strange heart it was- of the monster's lair.


	30. Unflight

A/N_: I kind of like the idea of all the characters growing up in this fic, it's a theme I saw in the game and wanted to really add onto. Little by little each character changes and adapts. First to the struggles and hardships of the journey(which I felt were really understated in the game), then to the mess of lies and truths uncovered during the first Tower scene. I think maybe in showing the changes each character goes though... well that might be why this fic is so long, plus the fact it takes me a hundred words to clear my throat /grins/. Ah well, enough endless chatter more chapter. Hopefully by the next chapter they'll be out of the bloody temple... this is taking a lot longer then I planed, but then there's only one "trial" left in my outline now._

Shard Chapter 30

Unflight

It was raining -or should he have called it "Raine-ing"?- relics. Any psycho ruin-modish elf's dream come true.

Well, except in dreams the vases didn't have razor sharp teeth, thier handels and decorations didn't become groaping tenticles and slaviating tounges.

There was a shatter as blade smashed into glass, clay, porcaline, the room for it's mass of fifty some odd vases, and each one despite looking the same was made out of different material. They screamed as they shattered, exhaling a blast of foul smelling wind as thier hides of various construct met with blade, angelic feathers, fireballs, and staff.

"Eng!" Hand over his nose the small elf raised a hand and called forth winds to banish the growing stink, each of those vases smelled wose then a Raine cooking experiment gone wrong.

Calling wind mana in the temple of wind lead to it's own problems, the shattered remains of the enemy were picked up in the miniture gale that Genis accidently summoned, and while the reek was gone they all were covered with small knicks and cuts.

"My research material!" Raine howled as the various decimated vases were turned into little more then powder at the spells conclusion.

There was an animal cry. They all turned, bleeding, weary, as the lone vase that had been inching after from the temples very start stared at the massive slaughter of it's kindred. It's small mouth sagged open, not in hostility, but shock. Then it screamed again, a flash of silver hissed thought the air and the thing shuddered. It reached with a flimbsy little tentecle to tap the gapping hole Kratos' dagger had left in it. A small web of black appeared, grew from the hole and covered the creatures hide, then it fell apart with a little sigh.

"We've barely begun, and this temple is begining to make me _very_ tired." Kratos growled, limping out of the range of Raine's light spell to retrieve his dagger.

Colette looked down at Genis, her face creased in confusion. "I don't think that means Kratos is tired, as in sleepy tired, does it?"

"No, I think it means he's getting mad."

Lloyd bit his tongue. Refrained from correcting his friends. There was no "getting" about it, Kratos was mad, and seemed to be getting angrier with every seal. Although why, the mercenary hadn't told Lloyd that part yet, and Lloyd knew he could never guess any of Kratos' real reasons. The man was just too confusing.

There was a loud crunch. Lloyd lifted his head, turned to the sound and fingered the hilts of his blades, but it was only Kratos. Standing at the very edge of Raines' light spell they watched as Kratos grimly dragged his boot thought the remains of the last monster and then sharply kicked the beast's shattered pieces aside.

"For all we know they could regenerate. We aren't the first Regeneration group to get this far, and I doubt the preceeding groups were so lax as to leave a small army of monsters behind. It's best to make it as hard as possible for them to come back and hassle us at a later date."

Colette and Genis nodded, accepted the man's reasurance that he wasn't really being cruel to the monsters just because he could. Raine also nodded, buying the man's icy logic. Lloyd, knowing Kratos best of all, accepted Raine's truth and acknowledged the lie the man had fed Colette and Genis. He knew that Kratos was deliberatly being cruel and logical, all at once, because that's how Kratos was. Capable of wild anger but also capable of being as distant as ice. In Raine talk, Kratos was something of an eternal contradiction.

"Genis, next time we walk into an ambush, don't tap your kendama till the fight starts, OK?"

"Right." The small elf blushed. "I'm sorry everyone, I didn't think-" Genis paused, considered. "Well I guess... I didn't _think, _I panicked, I guess I should have known that the minute vibrations would have set off-" The half elf's blush deepened, he began to stammer. Colette made him hush by winding an arm around the sorcerer's shoulders.

"It's OK Genis, no one got hurt, and we were all a little scared."

Seeing Kratos ready to say something Lloyd "acidently" stepped on the man's toes. The mercenary hissed, his eyes turned to slits, but whatever comment he was going to make he didn't make it. Which was good enough for now. Raine watched the swordsmen, her raised eyebrow said more than any words could. She offered healing where it was needed -pointedly ignoring Kratos, but that was to be expected- when all seemed in order she beconed them to study the door she had discovered. Holding up her staff, she read by it's golden luminence the runes of anchient times.

In short, boring words by the dead people in the coffines.

After discovering that the walls were little more then stone coverings for countless tombs, coffins, and other creepy things Lloyd had refused to even touch them. Genis' hadn't been shy about teasing Lloyd about ghosts, and the younger swordsman had nearly died in shame. Colette had been understanding and admitted to being little scared herself, but then Martel would protect them. Raine had assured them all that there was no such thing, and Kratos... Well he'd raised an eyebrow and told Genis that some respect for the supernatural would be wise.

"Don't tell me _you _belive in ghosts!"

"I've fought them." The mercenary had told the boy in an icy voice.

"And here I thought you might have some microgram of common sense, swordsmen are just superstitious-"

"Genis, we may not totally comprehend the myrid myths that Kratos ascribes to to explain the ordered logical workings of the Goddess' universe, but he deserves _some_ respect."

Very little respect was what Raine's tone had said. Lloyd sighed as he leaned against one of the pillars that was -hopefully- too thin to hold something dead in it. He wondered if she knew, that in mistrusting Kratos she was mistrusting him. He'd have to ask, and to explain it to her if she didn't. By the shrill note in Raine's voice her ruin nuttyness was returning... Lloyd groaned, shrank against the shadow of the pillar and wished he could just dissappear when the Professor had one of her fits. Genis was slowly being corrupted, the shorter elf's voice was going shrill with a lesser version of Raine's nuttiness. By the sound of it Colette was encouraging them both, offering information on the prayers and rituals. Raine would happily using Colette's faith to drag the blonde haired girl into her evil Ruin obsessed world, they'd be there for hours in front of the door talking ruins and Goddess' and...

"I hate this part of the stupid Regeneration Journey!" Lloyd groaned.

"I haven't found a part I like."

Lloyd jerked at the sound of the mercenary's voice. He turned -but not to fast, if his ribbons flared out behind him Raine might see it and drag him over for a history lesson!- and stared in total shock at Kratos. If he wasn't wrong,which he normally was, Kratos was hiding behind a pillar trying to stay out of Raine's line of sight.

No way, Kratos wouldn't hide from Raine... he was braver and stronger than anyone Lloyd had ever met. The man simply wouldn't _hide _from Raine.

"You're... hiding from the Professor, aren't you?"

"Don't look at me like that!" Kratos hissed.

"I can't believe it!" Lloyd flared. "I thought you were brave!"

Kratos growled, his dark eyes flashing dangerously. "I prefer to call this activity _an evasive action of Miss Sage's insane driven monologues_. However, if you have a burning desire to be brave, feel free to join your friends at the door."

"Not me, un uh." Lloyd shuddered at the idea.

The mercenary's face softened into a rare smile. "If you don't have the courage to change something, or challenge it, spare the world yet another empty critizising."

"I've no clue what you just said, but I'm climbing up that way when she turns around she won't see me."

"That's not a bad-"

Raine whirled, spying Kratos after having stumbling upon a reference to Sylph she solved her comprehension problem in a second. The writing was obviously anti-Martelian and with the man's dogged belief in other gods perhaps he could shed some light upon the obscure unenlightened concept of the misguilded ancients. Stepping back, gripping the hilt of his blade, Kratos growled.

"I will have no part of this maddness."

Raine's wild ruin mode eyes promised that he would.

X

Sniggering Lloyd watched form the dubious safety of his perch. What made it dubious was the perches sole vase occupant, but Lloyd would take blood thirsty relic over crazed elf scholar every time. He pointed a sword at the thing, and the monster quieted down and shuffled back and forth on it's slimmy vase like bottom.

Now that the monster was being nice Lloyd tucked his knees under his chin to give the creature a little room and watched the unfolding scene. Kratos was being dragged to the wall with it's scripture, and after being pinned by three sets of "Noishe Eyes" was squirming.

With the "Noishe Eyes" you squirmed and folded in about the same minute

Watching Kratos give in to Raine and everyone else promsied to be funny, he scooted a little closer to the edge, and lost in his glee he was ignorant of the little growl from behind...

X

"The Spire does not refure to "life", else the emphasis cross over the term would be present." Kratos explained to the elves and Chosen as he whiped away the dust above the zigzag rune. Dust that Raine -in her obsession with preserving authenticity of the script- had left untouched. "The unholy definition to spire... is... well not too dissimular to how it sounds in the modern tongue."

"Three spirits, three trials," Kratos gestured to the ancient door. "In this case, the trial is to find the way to open the door, and with three locks present we need to find three keys. The keys..." Kratos frowned at the text. "...sould be located at some type of spire. I appologize if my angelic is rather skettchy, I'm a swordsman after all, not a priest."

"Spire?" Lloyd's whispered question caught on the chambers vaulted ceiling and reached thier ears. They all turned and looked up. Lloyd sheepishly waved at them, managed a watery smile. "Like, up top? Well there isn't anything higher then this one and there aren't any keys here, just a va-"

"Grrr!"

They all cringed as Lloyd was thrown from the top of the talles pillar. Grappling something small, barely holding the rending teeth from his face, he hit the ground back first and the small vase went flying out of his hands... and smashed into a smaller pillar and shattered.

"Oww..." Lloyd looked up at the angry face of Raine and the concerned -and slightly less angry- face of Kratos. "OK, before you all start yelling at me, yeah, that was pretty stupid."

"The story of your life, Lloyd." Genis sighed. "You fall from trees all the time, and you climbed a really tall pillar?"

"Not you too."

"Lloyd, are you alright!"

"Yeah, I'm fine Colette."

Seeing that Lloyd was indeed fine Colette's tone, once concerned became somewhat sharper.

"Lloyd, what were you thinking? You promised you wouldn't do things like that anymore..."

Raising an eyebrow Raine stepped back to allow Kratos enough room to heal the dazed swordsman. She opened her mouth to ask when Colette had extracted that promise out of Lloyd. Seeing her expression Genis shook his head.

"It was so long ago I don't think either of them remember when it really did happen. He just keeps forgeting and Colette reminds him after he does something really stupid."

"Dear, try reminding him _before_ he does something stupid." Raine suggested. "That way when he doesn't listen you can say 'I told you so', I've noticed that men respond to that beter then any previously extracted promise."

Kratos lifted his head, both hands were glowing with thier familiar pale azura light that precursed a "first aide" spell. "When ever did you learn about that?"

"I had a... _friend_ in PalmaCosta, many years ago."

Kratos rose an eyebrow, but said nothing, and Raine pointedly ignored Colette and Genis' curious looks.

X

"I think... well the angels are trying to kill us." Lloyd mumbled under his breath as they skirted past another floor trap.

Kratos' sharp ears of course heard the mumble, he nodded, a silent encouragement that Lloyd could barely see, as they both were on the very edge of the staffs glow.

"I wouldn't argue that over much." Kratos mouthed the words slowly, not quite daring to whisper. They had paused as Raine and Colette were reading yet another wall slab. This was just one of countless pauses, and as had become habbit Genis went off a ways to juggle a small fireball on the ends of his kendama. Just tapping the ball on the weapons' enlarged cross peice must have grown dull for the magi, but this new repass put the mercenary on edge. All they needed was yet another wind gale, but those had been few and far between since wandering into the massive domed chamber that was part massive maze part death trap.

So while Genis played and Colette and Raine went through "angel mode" Lloyd and Kratos continued whatever topic they'd been talking about during the long march from slab one to slab... two hundred something. Kratos had lost count, and he knew for a fact Lloyd didn't even bother to count, the boy just endured.

"These temples aren't tests, they're death traps."

"Was it the first set of razor sharp spikes that came out of the floor or the second that tipped you off?" Kratos grumbled.

"And the fire temple with it's bird thingies... and the wat-"

Lloyd's voice hitched, as the guilt he'd felt came back as fresh as the day he'd let the creature posess him.

"It wasn't your fault." Kratos assured the boy. "And if you fail to recall I'll remind you, they took me as fast as they took you. It's a trick of the siren to lure men, there is no shame and precious little you can do to guard yourself againt thier... capabilites."

"I guess..."

"There's no guessing about it _Lloyden_, no guessing at all." Kratos gripped the younger swordsman's shoulder. "Try not to let it bother you overmuch. What you said, what you did, neither of those things came from you. Both your action and words came from the beast that had taken control, and you are not at fault. No one holds you at fault for your actions, no one."

Lloyd studied the stones of the temple floor, then sighed.

"I know... but... I can't just forget."

"Then don't forget, but forgive yourself for something that was beyond your control. Try, to do forgive yourself, at the very least just try." Kratos' lips quirked into a sad smile. "My wife's mantra to me when I'd sink into one of my self pitying moods."

"You?"

"I've made mistakes." Kratos admited. "What you preceve as my perfection of swordsmanship comes at a price, as do all things." The mercenary sighed, seeming to sink into a private dispair.

"Hey, Kratos."

The mercenary looked up, the steel, the ice of his demeaner was dropped. It would raise, so natural it was to the man it was almost like a tide that would smother any warmth or hope in the man's soul. You could almost see it rising when he adressed Colette, or Genis, or Raine... Anyone else but Lloyd would have to slough through the man's defenses, and they were many. Arrogence, condescendence, sarcasm, and aloofness were just the few Lloyd had seen, there were more, _had_ to be more, or Kratos wouldn't be so alone. Without his pose, without his shield of distance Kratos seemed somehow... vulnerable.

"Two things. One, Raine's starting to move on, she's going to go Ruin Nutty over a different slab. As for two... you may have screwed up somewhere, made a horrible mistake, but part of this journey -angels and crap aside- seems to be about forgiving yourself and letting go of what you've done. You might want to try it sometime, the whole forgiving part."

Sighing the mercenary shook his head. "You, of all people, can not understand-."

"Lloyd, Kratos!" Genis hollered. "Any swordsmen on the fieldtrip to the Temple of Wind are going to be left behind!"

"I knew he was going to get at you back for being a jerk in Iselia." Lloyd teased the mercenary.

"Hunh." Kratos glared at ths small elf. "Remind me again why I can't stab that little brat in the back?"

"Well one thing, we aren't near any streams of nothin' so it'd be really hard to clean up." Lloyd said in a voice loud enough for the others to hear. "Second, Raine would kill you."

"I heard that!" Genis hollared, "and for that... Are we there yet?"

"Gods..." Kratos rubbed his temples. "Not ag-"

Smirking Lloyd slung an arm over the mercenary's shoulders, leading his down the path. "Yeah, _are_ we there yet?"

Kratos glared at the Iselian swordsman, then with a growl ducked out of the boy's embrace. One _acidenta_l shove with his sword's promel to the small of Lloyd's back and the youngerswordsman staggered forward. The red dyed boot caught on some small flaw on the temples floor, he tripped, and Genis managed a wail before he was burried under red clad swordsman. Still grumbling, the black clad mercenary strood past the heap that was half, elf magi and half, human swordsman.

"We'll get there when he get there, now shut up and march!"

Genis stuck his tongue out, grumbled something about jerk mercneary's, and Lloyd only smiled. It took some effort, a little pain, but Kratos was out of his sulky mood.

X

At least when the second monster started following them they all saw it. Lloyd rolled his eyes, pointed behind him, and the others groaned. The monster this time wasn't a little vase, but a squat batwinged creature covered with some type of grey hide. When they all turned to stare at it, the monster went still and stared right back at them. At least it wasn't as smart as the last ones. It didn't have any sneaky "I'm going to look like a ruin-thing" trick.

At least that's what Lloyd said, Raine sighed and corrected the boy. Ruin thing wasn't a word, _relic_, or _artifact_ was the correct term.

And grumbling they had fallen into thier old paterns, into the old familiarity they'd had in Iselia. Lloyd the dunce being corrected by Raine the Professor, while Genis rolled his eyes and quietly teased and Colette encouraged... Then Lloyd brushed off Raine's lecture with a wave of a hand he looked at the monster that was staring at them with ruby eyes.

"We should do something about that."

Mutely Kratos agreed, drew his blade to show that agreement, and at that grim sound they rememered. Iselia was hundreds of miles away, and to some of them they could never go back. The moment was broken, the past banished, and the awkward present thrust upon them once again.

"Do we have to, it hasn't hurt us yet, it's just following." Colette protested.

"The last one did exactly the same thing, it was a relitively harmless creature. This gargoyle, however, is a much more vicious creature than some animated piece of ancheint crockery."

"A hundred Gald on that there's a room full of these things a little ways ahead." Lloyd grumbled, drawing his blades.

"You don't sound eager for a fight." Kratos noted. He flexed his fingers, a ring of green light was forming around his feet.

"Lloyd!" Colette cried out. "Please, it's not hurting any-"

"But it will." Lloyd sighed, not looking away from the monster. The beast, sensing the young swordsman's voilent intent unfluraled its jagged looking wings and ran a slate grey tongue over it's broken black teeth. "That's what monsters do Colette. They hurt people, and sometimes you have to... kill them before they can kill you. I'm sorry, but that's how it is."

Smelling the mana the beast hissed, turned on the mercenary. But Lloyd stepped in front of the man, both blades drawn. He'd cover Kratos, and Kratos would cover him, because that's what they'd have to do. To save the world, this was what they had to do...

Snarling, the beast lifted a claw, shielded it's eyes from the golden light that slid along the edge of Lloyd's blades like golden blood. With a scream -in defiance of the destruction of the darkness that was the world to the monsters of the temple- the gargoyle threw itself at the first of its' foes. Swatting aside stone claws, smashing his blades into the earthen hide, he finally had to push off the thing with a boot to get some distance from those snapping jaws and reaching claws.

He spared a moment to look down at his blades. They were usless, unable to draw even a thin line of blood or cause a knick. They'd never failed him before... Screeching in triumph, the beast flared its wings, threw itself forward, Lloyd lifted his blade in a pitiful defense... And a savege gust of wind whipped under the wings and threw the monster back. Before the beast could even think of folding the stubby protusions another gust smashed it in the back of the head hiting it with the foce of a sledge hammer. Then from all sides came a howling gale that slashed and cut and threw chunks of it's gritty hide and black blood around with abandon.

"If we run into more of those things it would be best if you stayed out of the fore front of the fighting." Kratos told the startled boy. "When your enemy is a beast blessed by Gnome's endurance, steel will do littlegood. There are ways around this of course, but we don't have the resources or time to begin that type of training until we're out of here." The mercenary softened his tone, seeing the boy's state of shock. "Are you alright?"

"Fine... just a little shook up."

"I happens every time you lose a fight. The faster you get over it the faster you can get up to try again. If you go too slow you'll die."

"It won't happen again." Lloyd promised, he looked at the monster and swollowed hard. Tried no to think about what would have happened had the thing gotten an inch closer, or if he'd been just a little slower...

Raine made a nose of disapproval. "That is _not_ what you say to a child who's..."

"It's what you say-" Kratos whirled on the Professor. His black eyes were like shattered bit's of ice, cold and unfeeling, in the staves golden light. "-to a novice swordsman, to a adolecence striving to become an adult. _You_ coodle the children and feed them whatever lies and platiudes to them that you have to to keep them going! _You_ shield them from the world to protect thier ignorance based innocence! I never have, nor will I ever. Yes, you shield them, to a dregree, but when they start to grow up you help them do that. You don't smother them with lies and false promises! To do so is to kill them."

Releasing the hilt of his blade, the mercenary took a deep breath then let it out slowly.

"Come, we have much ground to cover before this is over, and possibly a fight at the end of this. Keep pace or be left behind."

Raine gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and was only aware that the mercenary had walked past her by the whisper of his cape's tips brushing against the floor. A dejected Lloyd followed, the clink of his blades the whisper of his neck ribbons as the omnipresent breeze toyed with them were all that marked his presence to her. Then he was gone... following his mentor into the gloomy temples darkness. Clenching her hands, her fingers ached as they pressed against the wood, some spans itched as the feathers and beads caused agrivation that was not quite pain.

"Mr. Aurion, you fail to see the logic of this situation."

Though she did not open her eyes she knew that he paused. Genis shivered, leaned against her and shook from the force of Kratos' grim pronouncement. Absently she stroked her brother's hair, offering what meanger comfort she could.

"You can go as far ahead as you like, you can butcher as many monsters as messily as you'd like. That doesnt' matter. None of our actions matter." She opend her eyes, met his gaze. Looked into the silent rage that personified Kratos, and she knew then why she could hate him and why she would not. She could hate his calous cruelity, could hate him for such brutality and indifference, but pity for his circumstance and self distructive path would temper her from descending into hate. "We may _'celar the path'_ as the angels decree of the champions of the Chosen, but we may not walk it. That," her lips curled into a mocking smile. "is the duty of the Goddess Vessel. Any child, anyone with even an inkling of faith, would know that."

Kratos snarled, a man so broken and beaten by circumstance that he favored the manerisms of animals to express his rage.

"It is, in my experience-" Raine concentrated on her mana, allowing her scentence to fall away as she forsook the material world and brushed against the arcane. The golden light upon the staves jeweled top shimmered, then shot from it's perch sweeping in front of the group in a concentrated continous beam. Shaking her head to banish the discomfort of altering a spell from it's natural forum, Raine smoothly picked up her lecture from where she'd metephorically dropped it. "-that by applying logic one can illuminate any situation."

She swept the light so that it fell upon the surly mercenary, then set it so that it would show the path up ahead.

"And by seeing and looking about in an unbiased manner one may find the solution."

"That's a neat trick with the light Professor." Lloyd smiled, and she wondered if he understood the rebuttle. She wondered if he understood, and perhaps agreed.

"Thank you Lloyd. Colette, sweetie, could you please draw your wings so we have enough light to see whats around us as well as what's ahead? A little caution never hurt."

Colette complied, and after a flash of golden light the hall around them was shed in a surreal pink lumination. The shadows were tinted pink, the stonework aorund them cast into the feminine hue and made somehow... fuzzy due to the strange coloration. Blinking, she tried to ignore the strangeness of it all, appear composed and in control.

It was a facade both she and Kratos were both becoming masters at. Kratos would shiver but restrain his beastial rages and Raine would clench her staff as if to throtle her fascination with relics. In that... they were more alike than either would like to admit. Even as she lit the way with her carefuly controlled magic Raine wondered and worried. But her facade was in place, and time was teaching her how to perfect it. And she must perfect it, for Genis' sake, for Colette's, for Lloyd's... This journey, these trials meant to break and reform a Chosen must not be alowed to break her. Nor would she allow it to break or embitter her students...

Looking at Kratos, the man was little more then a black smear agaisnt the darkness that he clung to. Her lips pressed into a thin line, her eyes glinted with anger. No, this journey would not imbitter her students, or break them, she would let not allow it. No matter the obsticales that made such a goal hard to achieve. Because her students, most particularly Colette and Lloyd... were like family.

And like Lloyd, perhaps inspired by Lloyd's influence in her life, she knew that she would protect her family, no matter the cost.

Relaxing the near death grip on her staff, she gently nudged Genis.

"Come on, we mustn't be left behind."

X

A door, a lock with three parts, that would once again need three keys. There were no pillars, the room itself was bare.

Save for the ominous gargoyels that were perched on the miniscule ledges that jutted out from every cardinal direction. Frozen in poses of leering triumph they held earthen pitchforks that sproted cruel grotesk barbs. It didn't much help that they leared upon everything that dared enter the room. Kratos had wearily dranw his blade, looked upon the still "enemy", and cursed.

"Kratos." Colette sighed. "The goddess doesn't like it when people swear..."

And how about being homocidal scary pyromaniacs with swords? Genis couldn't imagine the Goddess looking kindly on that, but common sense made him bite his tongue.

"Look there." Kratos lifted his blade, like some macabre pointer, and they all followed it to the silver glint that hung around the creature's neck.

"Wha- I don't see... oh... crap." Lloyd squinted. "You've got to be kidding, we've got to climb up the walls,-" Lloyd ticked off a finger. "-to get to the statues,-" a second finger joined the first. "-to get the key,-" yet another finger was raised. "-to.."

"We get the idea Lloyd." Genis grumbled. "it's a lot of work and you're just being lazy and whining."

"I.. I'm not whining!" Lloyd flared, whirling to the only person who would back him. "Colette, I _wasn't_ whining, was I?"

"Well..." Colette tapped her fingers together, looked at the unaccusing stone floor. "The goddess said that we aren't supposed to lie... but..."

"See, she agrees. You're whining."

"Shut it, I wasn't wh-"

Raine raised a hand to massage his aching temples. She knew both boys. This could go on for a very long while.

"_Lloyden_..." Kratos' black eyes glinted dangerously. Lloyd gulped, and fell silent under that malace laced glare. Seeing that the children weren't going to fall into a "did not, did too" disagreement, the mercenary walked to the nearest wall and ran a hand up it's smooth side. "While the idea is a good one, there are no handholds. It seems as if someone did something to smooth out the walls. Or perhaps the winds that run around the temple have worn these down so that they appear to be a solid mass of rock."

They all fell quiet, considered the problem of fetching the keys. No one felt it appropriate to mention that getting the keys would awaken the statues. In bad situation you just didn't mention how things could get worse.

"I could just jam knives and swords into the wall and climb up that way." Lloyd suggested after -what was for him- an unnaturaly long span of silence.

"You have absolutely no respect for your swords, do you?" Kratos sounded disgusted. Loathing and anger rolled off his lips, sheathing his words in venom. "We are miles away from the nearest town, and that little exercise would destroy all of your weapons. Unarmed is _dead_ in this world. Filled with Desians, monsters, and with an _assassin_ probably less than a day behind us-"

"Bad idea!" Lloyd surendered, throwing his hands in the air and backing away from the mercenary. "Really bad idea, I give."

"Don't give, think before you speak." Kratos rumbled.

Colette, who had opened her mouth to praise Lloyd's idea, snapped it closed as she witnessed the display between the swordsmen. She considered what Kratos had said, then thoughtfully twitched one wing. They were small modest wings, spaning little more then half an arms length from her back. It seemed impossible for her to fly with them, but when she needed to, it seemed she could.

Still she felt funny trying to fly, what if she couldn't do it when she wanted to? But Lloyd's idea about knives gave her a different idea.

"I could make a stair, with my feathers."

Sighing, Kratos turned to her, his mouth opening to kill that idea. Suddenly Colette wanted to try it, needed to try it, just to prove she could do something to help. Anything to help...

"When I pray to the Goddess during a fight my feathers get really sharp." Colette pressed on, stubornly ignoring the mercenary. She turned to the more receptive and curious audiance of Genis and Riane. "If I... um flap, is that the right word? Well... If I flap my wings so the feathers hit the wall maybe Lloyd could climb up using the holes my feathers make. That way-" she turned to face Kratos, hoping her idea would defuse some of his anger. "-he won't have to break his swords or knives? I don't know if it's a good idea but..."

"Why not just fly up?" Kratos asked.

Colette blushed, her wings absently rubbed against each other even as she rubbed her foot against the back of her leg. She mumbled something and Kratos' eyebrows rose, not one, _both_ of them.

"I didn't quite catch that..." The mercenary said breaking the uncomfortable silence which had setteld over the chamber.

She said it again, speed blurring her words and marring thier coherancy. Genis opened his mouth to ask this time, but Raine frowend and hushed him with a sharp nudge.

"If Colette doesn't want to fly then I don't think we should push the issue-" Raine began.

"Still to waste energy, which is as vital a resource as food and water in these circumstance-" Kratos cut in.

"I can't fly!" Colette wailed, wipeing at eyes that would shed no tears. Eyes that had shed no tears for so many long weeks that she almost forgot what it felt like to cry. "The Angels didn't tell me how to so I don't know how to!"

"You.. can't..._what_?" Kratos nearly strangled.

"Shut it. You laugh at her and I _swear_ we'll fight, for reals." Lloyd growled.

"I wasn't laughing..." Kratos growled right back, but this time Lloyd didn't shrink back from the growl. "I'm merely surprised at the Angel's lack of foresight, yet... I am very impressed with the Chosen's abundance of it. It seems as if this time the Angels picked thier Chosen well."

Colette blushed, and her wings fluttered behind her in response to her pleasure at the man's rarely given praise.

"I think if Colette can make handholds with her angel magic my more mundane magic might be able to produce a simular effect." Genis said, his words falling in perfect rythem of the steady one-two tap of his kendama.

"Fine," Kratos drew his blade. "If they attack,-" Kratos inclined his head to the mundane looking statues. "-pull back into the center of the chamber. We'll hold them back while you cast whatever spells you have to kill them."

"Maybe, if the Goddess is smiling down on us, we won't have to." Colette murmurred as she clasped her hands together to pray.


End file.
